


The Twin Stars of the Ice Cliff

by Cubriffic



Category: Super Smash Brothers
Genre: 30 Days of Writing, Angst, But only like the start of it, But we love her anyways, Flashbacks, Fluff, Gen, I havent written in 6 months, I keep adding aus im so sorry, I keep writing characters ooc im so sorry, Ice Skating, Lots of it, Lots of minor characters - Freeform, Nanas kind of a bitch, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peach is a good friend, Snow, Theyre evil bastards in chapter 5, Theyre just very good friends, Winter, World of Light, spoilers they suck, they play minecraft, this is killing me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-09-07 15:15:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 39,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20311615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cubriffic/pseuds/Cubriffic
Summary: 30 days of our favourite bone-chilling duo, the Ice ClimbersA.K.A I'm in a massive writers block and what better way to solve it then with prompts involving my mains





	1. Comparison

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a loooong while since I last wrote something, so I apologise if my writing seems off  
Anyways, I absolutely LOVE the Ice Climbers, and I needed to write something about them so badly. It was eating me up inside. Love my kids.
> 
> This chapter is kind of short since it's mostly a giant description on how they'll be characterised in this; I added Day 2's prompt as well to make up for it.
> 
> For anyone who hasn't read the tags either- the two are NOT siblings in this. I'll generally try to keep them strictly as friends in all of them so you can take their relationship either way

It wasn’t uncommon for the residents in the Smash Brothers mansion to have mistaken the Ice Climbers for one another at least once. On first glance, they were pretty similar in personality- they shared the same cheery disposition & mannerisms and were both pretty friendly towards everyone; hell, most could only tell them apart based on their parka colours. The duo had accepted this fate of being mistaken for one another a long time ago, even occasionally dressing up as each other to mess with the other fighters.

However, there were still those that had known them for some time; the ones who could consistently remember which climber was which. And it was these people who knew that despite first impressions, the two couldn’t even be described as similar in personality.

Popo, for instance, was the more passive of the two. He was the one who lead them in most battles (and for good reason too), and who made most of the decisions if it came down to the two of them. He also happened to be stubborn in a good way, a trait that many found out through his sheer determination to tackle anything thrown at him in battle. He was, in most people’s minds, the more sensible and respectable one.

Nana meanwhile inherited almost completely opposite traits. She was sassier, more argumentative and far more stubborn than Popo could ever be- and not in the best way. She constantly tried to get away with fighting on her own in battles, and played impulsively if she managed to do so. She was far more aggressive than Popo was- some fighters only knew her name from just how mercilessly they had been meteor smashed by her.

Their distinctions went all the way down to their tastes and preferences; it wasn’t entirely unusual to wake up to the duo arguing over something as small as whether tea or coffee was better. They seemed to argue over the smallest things, only heightened by the stubbornness featured in both of them. Some of the newer fighters would worry when the two suddenly argued, however older ones simply ignored their latest disagreement.

This didn’t necessarily mean that they always clashed. In fact, quite a few of their traits aligned and reacted perfectly with one another. Popo’s gluttonous nature went alongside Nana’s proficient love for baking, Nana’s outgoing and uplifting behaviour was a constant source of keeping Popo’s head above water and both still maintained very cheery and kind traits, just to name a few. Even their arguments were nothing for the others to be concerned about- the two would always make up within the span of an hour at most.

Despite their shortcomings and differing traits, the two were still known to be closer than any of the other fighters were with one another. Their brave, stubborn and kind traits took over when they were around each other. They would even joke about how they were ‘stealing the other one’s traits’, especially when it came to their stubbornness.

And yet, they still would get surprised when they’re mistaken for one another.

As if they expected anyone to tell them apart in the first place.


	2. Childhood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk if this counts as childhood but listen theyre kids in it it counts now
> 
> Theyre about 8-9 in this, as you can tell Im the 1% minority who sees them as older than 10 years old. It's also why its all in italics; its a flashback <s>and it looks better imo</s>

_They had been travelling for several days now. He hated the long walks in the freezing snow. His legs were aching, tired from the constant walking through the snow, and he dragged behind his parents as they marched onwards._

_Every year was the same- Popo and his parents would travel to see the Northern lights for his mother’s birthday, which required at least a three day journey. In the past, his parents would always carry him when he got tired. But now, they claimed he was ‘too old’ and made him walk the entire thing. He hated every moment of it._

_Not Nana though. It was the first year that his best friend had been invited to see the lights, and she seemed just as eager and cheery as she usually was. She didn’t even seem the slightest bit tired, considering she had kept up with Popo’s parents for most of the trip._

_Right now though, Nana was lagging behind alongside Popo, apparently bored from the usual adult talk from Popo’s parents. Somewhere along their trek, she had grabbed two large sticks, and was using them to pull herself forward. Popo silently regretted not having that idea sooner- his legs felt like they were going to give out at any moment now._

_“Are you okay Popo?”_

_Popo’s attention diverted to Nana, who had stopped in concern. He didn’t notice that he too had stopped walking._

_He simply nodded. “Tired.”_

_“Oh.” Nana frowned for a moment, before her face lit up with an idea. She handed Popo one of her sticks. “You can have one of my walking sticks then!”_

_Popo smiled, taking the stick. “Thanks Nana.” He got back to walking, following alongside Nana._

_About an hour later, he overheard Nana humming along to something; she stopped before he could ask her what she was singing._

_\---_

_Night fell just as the group reached their destination. Popo and Nana immediately fell to rest in the soft snow as the adults set up camp for the night. The area surrounding them seemed eerie and unknown, as only a small set of lanterns lit up where they were._

_To Popo’s surprise, not many people were around. There was a couple sitting nearby & a few sole individuals, but it was otherwise not as crowded as it had been the year prior. He didn’t mind, though he did wonder where everybody was._

_It was also **very** cold. It was much colder than it had been back in the village, and Popo shivered under his parka. Snow fell about and the wind hit him like a cold slap to the face. Not even his hands, covered by his warmest gloves, were safe from the bitter cold._

_He could hear Nana’s teeth chattering next to him. He felt bad for her; Nana still hadn’t grown used to the cold of the village, let alone here, where it was far worse. Popo went to ask if she was okay when he was interrupted by his parents, who announced that dinner (finally!) had been served, and the two children instantly rushed towards them._

_To the children’s great relief, camp had finally been set up, and they sat side-by-side on two chairs, gulping down the hot soup that Popo’s father had made them. Popo was instantly warmed by his father’s cooking, finishing it quickly despite it burning his mouth. Nana, meanwhile, took more time to devour the hot food._

_Sometime during his dinner, Popo’s father threw thick blankets over the children. Now warmed by food and blankets, Popo slowly began to fall asleep, ignoring Nana’s protests to stay up with her. _

_He fell asleep to Nana’s voice, humming the same tune that he had heard on their way here._

_\---_

_Popo was woken by Nana’s violent shakes hours later._

_“Popo, Popo, look!”_

_He yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, before focusing on that Nana was looking at. His eyes grew wide at the sight- the Northern Lights had appeared._

_Even though he saw them every year, they never ceased to bring joy to him. The sky was glowing with colours of green, pink and purple, intertwining with one another in ways that he had never seen before. They seemed to be more intense than he had seen in the past- which, of course, he didn’t complain about._

_The only thing that could take his eyes off of it was Nana. She began to ramble in excitement at the lights, talking about how she had never seen them before, how they were beautiful and how she should ask her mother to take her here next year. Her joy was infectious; Popo could feel his own joy growing more and more the longer he listened to her speak._

_He tugged on her parka and pointed towards a certain part, where the colours of purple and pink mixed together. Nana gained a look of awe and wonder, and she fell silent for the first time since Popo had woken up. When he turned to look back at her, she was smiling widely, her eyes gazing on the lights above, humming along to that strange song that Popo had heard earlier._

_He couldn’t help but smile alongside her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will introduce more characters <s>as an excuse to add more tags</s>
> 
> Ill give you a hint on the next theme: They haven't always had the best cooperation...


	3. Arguments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the other fighters appear!!
> 
> Also yea they live in a mansion during the smash tournament bc apparently every other fic on this site does the same thing so-

Peach was used to seeing a lot of strange things, but never had she seen something like this.

She had been searching for Zelda for some time now (Peach was still rusty on some of her moves, and Zelda had proven to be a good training buddy) and, assuming that Zelda was in her room, had travelled through the bedroom halls trying to find her. Instead, she had stumbled upon a party of people - Daisy, Marth, Roy and Zelda herself - pushed up against a door, listening to whatever was going on in there.

Peach walked over, about to question what they were doing, when Daisy noticed her and put a finger to her lips, urging Peach to stay quiet. Peach stared at her, confused, until she heard muffled yelling coming from behind the door. She turned to look at the door’s symbol, wondering who on Earth could be in there.

An eggplant.

_Oh no._

Peach, her curiosity getting the better of her, situated herself beside Daisy to listen to the commotion. She couldn’t hear much thanks to the soundproofed rooms, but she could make out the voices of the Ice Climbers. She turned over to Roy, who noticed her quickly.

_How long?_ She mouthed to him.

Roy frowned, before he realised what she meant. _30 minutes._

30 minutes of the Ice Climbers screaming and arguing at each other. Not even Dark Pit could manage to hold an argument for that long. She began to worry; something must have gone dreadfully wrong between the two climbers for them to argue like this.

Suddenly, the room went silent. The group, Peach included, fled behind the hallway corner just in time for the door to slam open. Nana, red-faced and fuming, stormed out of the room, heading the other way. Peach peeked around to try and get a glimpse of Popo, but he slammed the door so quickly that she could only see red. The other four peeked out behind Peach, staying silent.

It was Roy that broke the silence with a sigh. “Master Hand is going to lose his shit.”

\---

Roy had every reason to be worried, because three days passed without the climbers speaking to one another.

Peach had never seen anything like it. She had witnessed arguments between them in the past, some lasting for hours, but none had ever been this bad. Most of the time, they would make up within minutes, but this time their stubbornness had gotten the better of them, and they remained on non-speaking terms.

It was so bad that they refused to even train in the same room as each other. Mega Man ended up cancelling their battle together (out of both pity and his own safety) and Samus & Mario offered up their own rooms for the climbers to stay in. Everyone else could only just sit and ponder about what had caused such a sudden change in their usually friendly relationship.

Peach was thinking the same thing, watching Popo with a careful eye during lunch. He was chatting with Marth about something, but seemed very… distant. As if his mind was somewhere else. Peach frowned slightly upon seeing that.

“Hello? Earth to Peach?!”

Peach blinked out of her thoughts to Daisy leaning across the table, waving in her face. Peach sighed. “Oh, sorry Daisy.”

“Lost in your thoughts again?” Zelda sounded concerned. Peach simply nodded.

“I suppose I was.” She forced herself to smile. “What were we talking about again?”

“Master Hand,” Daisy sat back down in her seat. “He’s real mad that Mega Man cancelled his match.”

“Of course he is,” Peach sighed. Master Hand was a tough hand (Person? Thing?) to deal with, especially since he was the one who organised the entire Smash event. “Mega Man’s not in trouble though, right?”

“Nope. Can’t say the same for Nana and Popo though.”

_Oh Toadstool._ “What did he say?”

“That they better be back working together by tomorrow or else,” Zelda shivered. “I don’t wanna find out what ‘else’ means.”

“Neither.” Peach’s gaze turned to Nana, who was laughing at something Lucina said at a nearby table. She turned to look back at Popo who was, coincidently, looking at Nana. An idea formed into the princess’ head.

“I’ll talk to Nana tonight about it.”

Daisy snorted in response. “Really? Just _asking_ her about it?”

“What?” Peach pouted. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Peach, you of all people should know how stubborn she is,” Zelda’s voice was a breath of fresh air compared to Daisy’s bluntness. “I doubt she’ll even want to talk about it.”

Peach shook her head. Zelda did have a point; Nana was, after all, as stubborn as a mule. But there was a part of Peach that thought that she could possibly get Nana to open up about the argument.

“I’ll get to her somehow. She’ll understand.”

Daisy and Zelda shared looks, already worrying about what Peach was planning.

\---

Peach sat on her bed, foot tapping slightly as she glanced towards the door. Any moment, she expected a knock from Nana. She straightened her dress and fixed her gloves, attempting to calm her nerves.

She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous- all she had to do was ask Nana how she and Popo were going, and then let everything play out. But still, she was getting worked up and nervous over it. She feared what would happen if Nana decided that she wasn’t going to talk.

A knock at the door startled Peach. She fixed herself up. “Come in.”

Nana pushed open the door, shutting it behind her as she entered. She walked towards Peach and, following Peach’s actions, took a seat next to her. Peach noticed that her eyes were puffy and red, as if she had been crying.

“What is it?” Contrasting her looks, Nana’s voice came out clear as day.

Peach fiddled with her fingers. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course!” Nana smiled, which only made Peach more nervous. She sighed.

“What’s going on between you and Popo?”

Nana’s face fell instantly. Fearing the worst, Peach tried to take a step back.

“I mean, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to! I’m just worried because, well, you guys usually get along so well and-”

Peach stopped talking when she heard sniffling. Nana was furiously rubbing at her eyes. Peach began to panic even more.

“Ah, Nana! Are you alright?”

Nana attempted to wave Peach off, but Peach ignored it and pulled the other girl into a hug. Nana immediately began to crumble into the princess’ arms, bursting into painful sobs that made Peach’s compassionate heart break. She began to babble incomprehensibly through her tears, which Peach could do nothing but silently nod to.

Slowly Nana’s ramblings turned to silence, and the two girls sat in a solemn embrace. Peach could hear the wind rattling against her window; the only sound that filled the room. Peach, her heart trembling, chose to break the silence.

“I’m really sorry Nana,” Peach sighed, stroking Nana’s hair. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m just-”

“Worried. I know.” Nana’s voice was scratchy from her crying. “It’s fine.”

The two girls fell back into silence, when Nana suddenly spoke once more.

“You know what’s funny Peach?”

“Mmm?”

“I don’t even remember why I was mad at Popo.”

The two girls pulled away, giggling to themselves over something that just an hour ago had caused a crying fit. Peach sighed, brushing at her now very tear-stained sleeve.

“I don’t think he remembers either,” Peach thought back to earlier that day. “He seemed quite upset when he saw you today. Like he wanted to talk to you, but couldn’t.”

Nana sat there for a moment, rubbing at her eyes and contemplating over that statement. She suddenly stood up, brushed down her slightly-ruffled parka and turned back to Peach.

“I’ll go talk to him then,” Her sudden change in attitude amused Peach greatly. “If anything he’s probably forgotten about it too.”

Nana began to walk out of Peach’s room, before she suddenly turned around.

“By the way- thanks Peach.”

Peach returned Nana’s smile. “Anytime.”

\---

The princess, alongside everyone else in the mansion, was quite happy to hear the playful quarrels of the ice climbers the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact it took me forever to write the last scene bc believe it or not I HATE writing characters crying,,,
> 
> Also I apologise if characters act OOC, Im still getting back into the swing of writing haha


	4. Baking Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always liked the idea that Nana is a really good cook/baker, meanwhile Popo cant function on his own in a kitchen for more than a minute

Usually, it was an unspoken rule amongst the Smash fighters to keep Popo out of the kitchen. The boy was absolutely hopeless at anything to do with cooking; for his own safety (and everybody else’s), he was never allowed in there without someone watching him. Rumours often floated around as to what exactly caused this rule to fall in place- some said that he had once burnt down his and Nana’s kitchen back home, others that he impaled his hand when Nana left for a few minutes.

At the moment though, he was rushing around the kitchen cupboards, reading over everything that they currently needed. That night was when the four legendary Heroes were said to arrive, and the food preparation for their welcoming party had fallen onto the climbers, much to Popo’s dismay. The duo had spent the entire day preparing small snacks for the party, but now the most important duty had reared its head- the cake.

Somehow, the two had to prepare a cake large enough to serve at least 98 people (give or take a few numbers). They had eventually settled on both a multi-layered cake (which terrified Popo but Nana had assured would be easy) and a set of cupcakes; enough to feed everyone invited. With the massive cake out of the way, all that the two had to do now was the cupcakes

Nana had kept Popo out of the actual baking, simply just sending him to grab the ingredients & read out the instructions. At the moment, she was reading over the baking instructions on the back of the cake mix. The whole kitchen smelled of vanilla frosting, and it reminded Popo of the days before.

The past two days had been absolute horror. Between the excessive wait times for the cake preparation, the two underestimating how difficult it really was & the pressure to get the cake done in time, the climbers had been running back and forth in the kitchen rushing to get it ready for the party. Nana’s assumptions of it being easy had proven to be dreadfully wrong, and Popo had watched as she spent the entire time baking being absolutely stressed and red-faced in frustration.

So both climbers saw it as an absolute relief when the cake was done, leaving just the cupcakes to be completed. Popo may have been an absolute disaster in the kitchen, but he was sure that he could manage a few cupcakes. After all, he had made them in the past- with a little help from Peach.

Nana thought completely otherwise.

His best friend had refused to let him anywhere near the baking, much like the previous cake. Because of this, Popo had spent the whole afternoon repeating the same events - grabbing ingredients and materials - and he was beginning to get frustrated. He leant up against one of the cupboards as he watched Nana pull the cupcakes out of the oven, <s>the ones that only she made</s> the ones that the two of them had made together.

Nana placed the cakes onto the cooling rack, humming peacefully to herself. Popo quietly stomped the tip of his foot onto the ground, in a sly effort to try and get Nana to realise how pissed off it was.

It didn’t work. Nana simply ignored him and went on to reading the icing instructions. Getting more frustrated with being ignored by the second, he slammed his heel into the cupboard door, which he immediately regretted upon making contact with it.

That caught her attention. She turned back to Popo, slightly annoyed. “What?”

“I want to help.”

Nana sighed, pushing the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “Popo, I don’t mean to offend you, but you’ll literally cause an accident trying to do anything.”

“Not true,” Popo pouted at Nana’s accusation. “I’ve made noodles all by myself before.”

“You also broke a plate trying to peel an orange.”

_Damnit._ Popo cursed Nana’s photographic memory. He sighed.

“At least let me help with the frosting. _Please._” Popo put on his best puppy eyes, almost pleading for Nana to let him help.

He watched Nana’s eyes grow soft before she groaned in annoyance. “Ugh, _fiiine._ But you have to follow everything I say.”

“Yeah, yeah, I will.” Popo slid up against Nana, deliberately pushing his shoulder into hers.

“God you’re so annoying.”

“I know I am.”

\---

“Ok just rest it on your right finger- No, stop, you’re gonna go over the edge- Ok just leave it like that, right next to the edge. Perfect.”

Popo’s hands were shaking slightly. He held the piping bag in his hand over the cupcake, getting ready to coat it with frosting. Nana had been instructing him how to do it, but he could feel himself getting more nervous the longer he waited.

He had watched Nana do it already and, of course, it had come out perfectly. The cupcake in question was sitting right next to his unfrosted one- perfectly swirled, topped off with a sugar sword to match the decorations on the larger cake. Popo was worrying that he wouldn’t be able to match Nana’s decorating skills.

Scratch that: he _knew_ he wouldn’t be able to match Nana’s decorating skills.

“Ok, I think you’re good now,” Nana stepped back. “Just move your hands slightly so it covers the whole thing. And to move up."

“Right.”

Popo went ahead with the frosting. As he expected, it came out nothing like Nana’s; it was wonky on one side & some of the frosting was tipping over the cupcake’s sides. Nana looked over to see how he went.

“Not bad for a first try,” She grabbed another piping tube, filled with purple-blue frosting. “You went a bit too far on the sides though.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Popo grinned sheepishly at his mistake.

“Could be worse. Half of Ness’ frosting fell off the side the first time I tried to teach him.”

“I remember that.” Popo smiled at the thought. It was some time ago now, from the last tournament that he and Nana participated in. Popo had just watched while Ness and Lucas tried to frost cupcakes together with Nana. It ended about as well as one would expect.

Nana pulled out two more unfrosted cupcakes from the cooling rack. “We’ll do them together, so you can watch me. You'll learn better that way.”

“Are you criticizing my _professional_ frosting skills?” Popo acted offended at Nana’s statement.

“Maybe.” She stuck her tongue out at him, causing the two to fall into a fit of giggles and for Popo to almost squirt out half the icing from the tube.

In the end, Popo’s didn’t end up quite as awful as he expected- sure they were very much wonky and not as appealing as Nana’s, but he at least didn’t end up destroying half the kitchen when he was doing it. The other fighters were equally surprised when Nana told them that Popo helped to make them.

To his relief, she didn’t mention that he actually barely did anything aside from the decorating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kirby was supposed to be mentioned in this but I completely forgot and Im too tired to change it so uh,,, sorry kirby


	5. Black Parka AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This AU was created by @/roxmien on Instagram (This was based on two images drawn by them in particular)! Essentially the ice climbers are just evil bastards lmao
> 
> This was probably my favourite one to write yet, Ive wanted to write something about this AU for ages but I never got around to it

The mountains were quiet tonight. Too quiet for Nana’s liking.

Her and Popo had been travelling for hours now, and were yet to come across another living soul. The two hadn't even seen a condor in the sky or a topi scattering across the ice. It was as if the mountain’s inhabitants had sensed the kind of people crossing it, and had fled before the invaders could find them. Nana couldn’t blame them. If she was in their position, she would probably be afraid too.

Snow crunched under their feet as they prepared to scale another part of the mountain. They had planned to reach the next village by the early morning (to avoid anyone seeing them coming), but the fierce snow had slowed them down by quite a bit. Nana could tell that Popo was getting frustrated by their lack of progress; he had made it pretty clear by almost shattering a piece of the mountain with his mallet an hour ago.

They were getting close to the peak now, to Nana’s relief. It was just this last climb and they should finally be able to cross over to the village. She was, admittedly, quite disappointed with the lack of life on the mountain though. Usually there would at least be a condor resting within a cave, waiting for the morning.

Next to her, Popo suddenly went dead still. Nana heard the sound of crunching snow echoing around her. Slowly, she reached beside her for her mallet, listening to the sound getting louder.

Then it stopped.

Nana and Popo immediately turned around, weapons bared, and came face to face with… nothing. The duo leant over the mountain’s edge to see a tall teenage boy wandering through the snow, a few meters down below. He had stopped for a moment, pondering over something in the snow. Nana couldn’t recognise where he came from- his fiery red hair and strange armour weren’t common around the area. 

“He’s got a sword.” Popo pointed to what the boy was holding. Once again, Nana couldn’t recognise anything about it; its markings didn't resemble any of the nearby village's symbols. _He must be a noble,_ she thought to herself, _Or maybe a knight._

Nonetheless, she could already feel the thrill of a fight going through her. It had been so long since she had the chance to go after someone, especially on such difficult terrain. She turned to Popo, mischievously grinning.

“First one to get a hit on him gets to hit the final blow.”

Popo’s eyes shone with malevolent glee. “You’re on.”

The two jumped down the ledge to ambush the boy, who managed to dodge out of the way just in time. He looked at them and gained a look of shock and disgust upon seeing them.

“_You._”

“Yeah? What about me?” Nana flashed the boy a grin, causing him to scowl in annoyance.

“You’re what I’m here for,” The boy aimed his sword at them, and Nana could see flames bouncing off the tip. “You’ll cease to terrorise these mountains when I’m finished with you!”

Popo pushed ahead of Nana, almost hitting the sword out of the boy’s hands with his mallet and scowling profusely.

“Whatever. I have a bet to keep up with.”

The climbers launched towards the boy, who fended them off with his flaming sword. Popo swung at his chest whilst Nana attempted to go at his legs. But the boy was observant; he managed to avoid both swings, slicing Popo in the process and ramming Nana in the stomach. The two swung back in retaliation, managing to hit the boy before he swung another sword slice at them.

Nana could feel the adrenaline flowing through her veins. This boy wasn’t an easy target; they’d actually have to be crafty to get him to succumb to them. Abandoning her mallet for the moment, she shot out a flurry of ice at him, managing to hit him several times and even freezing his sword a little bit. 

She couldn’t quite celebrate a potential victory yet, because she soon realised that she was fighting alone. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Popo leaning on his mallet, blood pouring out of a wound from his head. Before she could yell at him to come and help her, a flaming sword came rushing at her, and she barely had time to move out of the way of it.

The smell of burning fabric caught her off guard. She looked down at her parka to find its fur slightly charred. _Damnit._ Nana managed to swing her mallet down quickly, hitting the boy’s shoulder, but it proved to do little against his armour. The boy swung back twice as hard, his sword slicing her left arm and flinging her into the ground.

The thrill of the fight was slowly being replaced by the absolute pain that Nana felt. This guy was possibly one of the strongest that they had encountered so far, and Nana was not one to accept a losing fight, especially if she was alone. Pulling herself off of the ground, she started to avoid the boy’s fiery swings, her attention now focused on searching for Popo.

He was nowhere to be found. Nana began to internally chastise herself for even letting Popo out of her sight for more than five minutes when she noticed the hood of a parka poking out from behind a large snow-covered rock. Nana quickly tripped her opponent up, hitting his ankles with her mallet, before fleeing behind the rock before he could see. She came face to face with her friend, who seemed strangely giddy, as if he had just discovered the greatest thing on Earth.

“What the _hell_ are you doing?!” Nana hissed at him.

“I found something.”

“Excuse me?!” _God, the blood loss is getting to him already._

Popo held up a rope- their belaying rope. “We can get him with this.”

Nana snatched the rope off him, and turned it over in her hands. It was thick enough to possibly resist a sword's blade, and they did have a spare rope up ahead. She began to think.

“So if I grab one end, and you grab the other… We can trip him up and tie him down.”

“Exactly.”

Nana peeked out from behind the rock. The boy was pacing back and forth, sword swinging in front of him like he was ready for whenever the Ice Climbers would come back out. Nana hid herself back behind the rock, and turned to Popo.

"Stay here. When I call for you, start running around and tying him up."

"Got it."

Grabbing onto one end of the rope, Nana raced out from the rock, slamming her mallet into the boy's sword before he could notice her reappearance. The boy wavered slightly, but recovered in time to hit Nana’s shoulder, causing her to hiss in pain. Throwing her mallet to the side, she aimed for his sword, shooting an ice flurry at it in an attempt to freeze it.

It worked. The boy’s sword emerged frozen, though she could already see the ice starting to melt. Now was the time to engage their plan.

“Popo, now!”

Popo ran out, circling the boy quickly with the rope. Nana followed in the opposite direction, hitting the sword out of the boy’s hands whilst the circled him. The climbers slammed the boy into the ground, completing their plan with a quick tie of the rope.

Nana pulled the boy off from the ground, sitting him up in the snow. He looked defeated and, with his determined look gone from his eyes, much younger than before. He attempted to pull himself out of the ropes, but to no avail; the ropes were done up too tight for him to even move his arms.

Nana glanced at her cut-up arm. Now that the thrill was over, she was beginning to feel just how painful her injuries were. And, to top it off, her parka had been torn, leaving her exposed to the freezing cold. She turned to Popo.

“I’m going back up to get bandages,” She looked at the boy tied up. “You did well. He’s all yours.”

Popo’s expression turned to one of menace, and he turned to the now-terrified boy. Nana simply grinned as she watched Popo approach the boy, mallet in hand.

“You messed around on the wrong mountain, buddy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should have mentioned this earlier, but some of the fics will take place in their own universe, some in the smash universe and some (like this) as a mix of both.


	6. World of Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With every day that passes I get reminded that Sakurai missed an opportunity to make one of the climbers sacrifice themselves for the other in WoL and it makes me maD
> 
> Also I forgot to proofread this but Im too tired to so uh sorry if theres any mistakes

_“Don’t let a single one get away!”_

_Popo could barely hear over the intense beating of his heart. The orange sky was covered with Master Hand clones, all approaching the fighters at that very moment. The other fighters around him were equally as nervous, shakily preparing to fight the clones heading their way._

_The reassuring words coming from some of the fighters was not helping Popo in the slightest. He knew just how difficult fighting someone as powerful as Master Hand was; he had experienced it first-hand, going after him alongside Nana in the past. Fighting even one more was a death trap for most of the other fighters. Yet it wasn’t these clones that had Popo worried- it was the glowing, god-like being behind them._

_He had heard the name of it being tossed around by other fighters, but he was too nervous to remember its actual name. It was multi-coloured and large, much larger than any fighter that Popo had ever seen. The middle of it glowed with such intensity that it was difficult to stare at, and Popo swore that he saw its light blink like an eye._

_He turned to see Nana standing right next to him. Instead of looking nervous, she seemed determined, holding her mallet as if she was preparing for a fight. He knew different though. Her hands shook ever so slightly and her hands were clutching the mallet’s handle as if her life depended on it. But still, seeing Nana’s attempts at confidence and determination lifted Popo’s mood._

_He took a fighting stance next to her, preparing for whatever attack the being was going to throw at them. Other fighters did the same; Popo could see Link a few meters away, holding his shield defensively in front of him. All of them stared at the being, preparing for its attack._

_The hands began to disappear. Sounds of shock and confusion wavered through the fighters, wondering what was going on. This confusion didn’t last for long however, as the hands suddenly formed a black hole. Popo noticed Shulk staring in horror at it, and the nerves that had been settled for a moment came roaring back through him._

_Then the light started._

_Beams of light began to rush towards the fighters. Popo abandoned all hopes of attempting to fight back, and began to run, dragging Nana alongside him. The two hid behind a rock and observed the situation. They had enough time to see Link reflect one of the lights before being engulfed._

_Nothing of him was left._

_Sensing they were next, Popo yelled at Nana to run before they sped off to try and find another hiding spot. Popo could see people being decimated left and right; Zelda, Samus, Mewtwo. Fear fuled him to find somewhere for them to hide._

_Nana’s arm stopped him from running further. He turned to see her staring at him. Her eyes were full of fear, yet her voice came out strong._

_“We have to fight.”_

_Popo couldn’t believe her. “We’ll die if we stay out here!”_

_“And we’ll die if we hide!”_

_Popo looked behind her. He could see Captain Falcon attempting to flee, before a beam hit him as well. She was right; they were going to die either way._

_He looked at her. “Take the ones on the left.”_

_Nana nodded in response. They turned back-to-back, throwing whatever they could to keep the beams away from them; ice, snow, their own mallets. But the beams seemed to be targeting other people, missing the climbers entirely._

_Popo, still on guard, watched as others tried to flee. The two angels - Pit and Dark Pit - were engulfed as they fell to the ground. Isabelle, cowering behind a rock, was hit next. The only person he could see avoiding the targets successfully was Kirby, who was attempting to outrun the beams with a warp star in the sky._

_Something hit Popo in the ribs, sending him flying and smacking his face into the dirt. He coughed, shaking off the pain and looking up to see if Nana was okay. She looked at him, the absolute fear in her eyes contrasting against the smile that she gave him._

_Then she was engulfed by the light._

_By the time Popo could process what was happening, there was nothing of her left._

_He immediately began to collapse in distraught. His hands were shaking, he could barely breathe, he couldn’t even focus on the destruction surrounding him. Someone called out to him, but he couldn’t tell who it was. A light passed in front of him, targeting and engulfing a nearby fighter, yet he barely even acknowledged it._

_He began to choke up trying to speak. Tears flowed down his cheeks; angry, hot tears that he knew Nana would try to make go away. She had sacrificed herself- and for what? She said they would die anyways, yet still, she still put her own life above his own._

_He screamed out her name, in some wild attempt to try and tell himself that she was still here._

_“NANA!”_

_And then the world went dark._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basic English classes: Only use Italics when you want to emphasize a certain word or phrase.  
Me: ,,,,italics drematic,,,,,,


	7. Art

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Popo being an artist is one of my favourite headcanons for him, let him paint in peace

It was Popo’s idea to pass their time by painting. It had been pouring buckets outside for days now, trapping most of the fighters inside to find something else to entertain them. Most matches had been cancelled, leaving the fighters to wander around and find something to entertain them.

Nana hadn’t taken being trapped inside lightly. She wasn’t someone who liked to be kept inside constantly and had quickly grown bored of everything that she had tried to distract herself with. Reading, baking, playing cards with the other girls… by the third day Nana was beginning to grow restless from the lack of entertainment.

So when Popo suggested that they tried painting instead, Nana didn’t dare to pass up the opportunity. Sure, she had never really done much with art before, but at that point she would take up anything to satisfy her boredness.

The two were currently sketching out the plans for their artwork in one of the many rooms of the mansion. It was an art room, its tables stained with a mixture of paint, clay and charcoal (Nana had no idea _why_ there was an art room here, but she didn’t complain.). Popo had laid out a bunch of photos for them to paint, and Nana had settled on the simplest- a sunset.

The problem was, she had no artistic bone in her body, and it was already beginning to show. Within an hour, all she had managed to do was sketch out something that resembled a waterline and a circle onto the canvas. In contrast, Popo was just about to begin painting his own one, and his sketch looked much better than whatever Nana had drawn.

_Typical._ What skills Nana had in cooking reflected on Popo when it came to art. For someone who could take down a whole house trying to cook an egg, he was very talented in art, which was, in Nana’s mind, much more difficult to do.

Popo caught her staring, and gave her a cocky smile. “Jealous much?”

“Oh shut up.” Nana rolled her eyes at Popo’s laughing, but she couldn’t help but smile back.

She turned back to her own piece, still nothing but crooked lines, and huffed in annoyance. She grabbed a blank pallet from the table & began filling the spaces with paint, varying in shades of yellow, orange and black. Nana’s competitive streak was beginning to take over as she grabbed a brush and began to rapidly paint over her sketch lines.

Oh yes, she was going to show up Popo’s own art in any way that she could- or at the very least match up to it.

\---

She did absolutely everything but that.

Sure, the painting wasn’t as bad as she expected it to be; the oranges and yellows had blended in well enough and even though the sun looked absolutely horrible, the water beneath it didn’t look too awful. But it was nothing in comparison to Popo’s. His was absolutely gorgeous- Nana was growing envious of his skills the longer that she looked at it.

She groaned in defeat, pushing her canvas away from her and letting her head rest on the cool table. Popo tapped her shoulder, which caused her to turn to look at him.

“You alright?”

Nana sighed. “Yeah. Just very heavily disappointed.”

“Why?”

“My painting came out like trash.”

Popo simply hummed in response, and turned to look at her painting.

“I don’t think it’s that bad.”

Nana snorted in response. “Haha. Very funny.”

“No seriously, it looks fine,” Popo pulled Nana’s canvas towards him, observing it more closely. “I mean, some of the paint’s kinda clumpy and the sky’s a bit too dark in some places, but they’re just small things.”

“Not compared to yours though.”

Popo sighed. “Look, painting’s not like baking. Messing up on one thing isn’t gonna completely destroy it or anything. Even I made mistakes on my one.” He handed his canvas to Nana, which she sat up and took. It was a painting of a cluster of snow-covered mountains; she recognised it as some of the mountains from their village. Popo began to point out parts of it.

“See there, I made the snow too dark on the top. And there, I accidently painted into the foreground. You just don’t see them ‘cause you focus on all the good stuff about it. But on your own art, you look more at the mistakes, because you just compare it to mine.”

Nana knew that he was right; now that she was looking at it, there were still some mistakes here and there on his art. Still, she was embarrassed by her own painting compared to his. He seemed to catch onto that, and quickly followed up on his words before Nana could say anything in response.

“Besides, I’ve been painting since I was, what, 12? I’ve had heaps of practise,” He playfully bumped her shoulder. “I can teach you if you want!”

“You should have just done that straight away.” Nana pushed hers and Popo’s painting to the side to grab a free canvas. “Would have saved me a lot of trouble.”

“Such a shame.” Nana shoved Popo, who simply just laughed back at her.

\---

The rain had finally stopped pouring, but the two Ice Climbers spent the rest of the day cooped up in that art room, painting together. By the time Mario came looking for them, getting them to come to dinner before all the food would run out, he found them in a mess, drying canvases everywhere & the two in the middle of painting something together.

He left the two alone to paint together in their own company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ones kinda lacking so I apologise, today was pretty stressful so it kinda reflected in my writing


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dont even know if this counts as summer but its close enough

Both of the Ice Climbers hated the fact that the Smash tournaments partially took place in the summer. Summers during the tournament were humid, dry and most of all _hot_. As people who’s summers were classed as times where there was less snow than usual, it was hell to live through a summer in the mansion. Sure, they finally had the chance to wear something other than their parkas, but it didn’t make up for the constant 95 degree weather that plagued them.

To top it off, everyone else lept at any chance to cool off, meaning that there was little to do in choices of keeping cool. The pool was always taken over by the Mario and Pokemon crews, and every room with an air conditioner was packed with people trying to keep cold. Popo had even stumbled upon some of the Pokemon hiding in the freezer, attempting to stay cool without actually having to leave the mansion or get in any water.

Today had been the worst one so far. With outside being over 100 degrees, nobody dared to leave the mansion unless it was to fight over pool privileges. Even the matches had been cancelled today due to the heat. The climbers had been cooped up in the kitchen since they woke up, since it was one of the few places that was actually managing to stay cool. 

“It’s too HOT!” Nana groaned from the kitchen’s fridge, which she was currently leaning against.

“I know.” Popo was lying on the kitchen floor’s tiles.

“We need to do something.”

“Mhm.” Popo wasn’t paying much attention; he was too focused on his current overheating state than to listen to Nana’s ramblings.

“We should set up a water balloon fight.” Popo could sense Nana’s grinning from his place on the floor.

“Can’t. The Links used them all up yesterday.”

Nana groaned once more in response. Popo simply shut his eyes, attempting to block out his friend’s complaints.

That worked for about 5 seconds before Nana suddenly spoke again.

“Oh my god, we’re idiots.”

“Huh?” Popo looked towards her.

“We can just use snow to cool down.”

Popo lifted himself off the ground. “What?!”

“We could have just cooled down with ice and snow the whole time.” Nana was in just as much shock at her realisation as Popo was.

Had it not been for the excessive heat, Popo would have gotten up and completely lost it. He just simply sighed, resting his head in his hands. “We’ve spent this entire week suffering for no reason.”

“Yeah, basically.”

Popo looked at her between his fingers. “You’re not helping Nana.”

“Well there’s no point worrying about it now,” Popo felt something cold hit his hands, and he pulled them away to see Nana grinning at him, the remnants of snow resting on her fingertips. “And besides, I’ve got a plan for what we should do now.”

Popo could already tell what she was thinking. He grinned back, brushing the now-crumbled snowball off of his knees. “Just make sure Master Hand doesn’t catch us.”

“He’s suffering just as much as we are, I doubt he’ll even care if we do it.”

Popo got off the ground and followed Nana out of the kitchen, getting giddy with initiating their plan.

\---

About half an hour later, the entire dining hall was covered in ice and snow.

The fighters who hadn’t managed to sneak their way into the mansion’s pool were gathered in the hall, sliding around on the ice or playing in the snow. A snowball fight had ensured on one side of the hall between the Heroes & the Links, whilst Ness and Lucas sat nearby, building snowmen together. Isabelle was being dragged around by one of the Villagers on the ice, & Marth and Roy were taking turns in attempting to trip the other one up whilst skating. Snow was raining from the roof, covering everyone in a light dusting of snow.

The two climbers were sitting at one of the tables. Nana was making tiny snowmen out of the snow that covered the table, whilst Popo watched the other fighters enjoying themselves in the cold hall. He watched as Roy, yet again, failed to trip Marth up… only to fall over Isabelle and smash his face onto the ice.

A snowball hit Popo square in the back of his head. He turned to see Young Link rushing to hide behind Link, clearly the culprit of the attack. Popo nudged Nana with his shoulder, nodding towards the Links.

“I think they’re up for a fight.”

Nana looked confused for a moment, so Popo elaborated.

“Young Link got me with a snowball.”

Nana grinned mischievously, forming a large snowball in her hand and pelting it towards the Links. She managed to hit the tallest one, who proceeded to stumble back and almost trample Young Link. The climbers giggled together at their hit.

Nana was instantly hit back by Toon Link.

A snowball fight ensued between the 5 fighters. The climbers fought with their own powers, swinging massive snowballs at the 3 Links, whilst they threw more and more behind their own small little fort. A stray snowball from the fight hit Marth nearby, startling him & causing him to crash over Roy, sending both of them sprawling over the ice. In retaliation, Roy immediately got up and flung a snowball at Nana, who proceeded to fire right back.

Within minutes, a massive snowball fight had erupted throughout the hall. Nobody was safe, as fighters left and right were pelted with snowballs. When the Mario gang finally arrived back from the pool, they were met with an array of snowballs flung at them, prompting even more people to join the growing fight.

The two climbers retreated to a corner, pelting snowballs at anyone that dared to go near. They laughed as they watched people slip on the ice trying to chase after whoever pelted them. They formed more snow directly in the center of the room, causing people to rush towards it for ammo and, in turn, ram into each other, which only caused more laughter from the climbers. They were having so much fun that they completely forgot about the heat that was plaguing the rest of the mansion.

That was until Master Hand came in, demanding to know what was going on & causing the climbers to flee before they were caught.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yea the ice climbers are massive idiots,,,, what about it
> 
> Also man I feature Roy way too much in these lmfaO


	9. Fear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yall thought I was done with WoL,,,, you thought WRONG
> 
> I was gonna write this from Popo's POV but Nana deserves some angst too

_It was bright._

_And hot._

_And heading for them fast._

_She didn’t know what to do. She had seen it destroy the others before her. It was a ruthless, unforgiving thing, a beam that destroyed everything in its path. She had seen it take out gods, legendary heroes, the average person, and everything in between. They had all disappeared in a flash, their abilities unable to stop the merciless god that was going after them._

_She couldn’t think straight. She was acting on impulse now, throwing whatever she could to keep the beams away. She knew that eventually it would be fruitless, that they would succumb to the god’s power soon enough. And yet, she fought, as if she still had a chance against it._

_The beam was getting close now. It was too fast and strong for them to fend off against. They could try to avoid it if they split up, but it would most likely only end in one of them surviving the attack._

_So she acted on impulse. Smashing him in the ribs and sending him flying out of the way. By the time she processed what she had done, it was too late. The beam was just meters away from hitting her now._

_So she turned to him, and tried to smile, as if to assure him that she would be okay._

_Then she felt the beam hit her, plunging her into pain and darkness._

\---  
Nana woke up in a sudden panic. She was panting heavily, one hand resting over her rapidly beating heart, the other clutching her bedsheets. She sat there for a moment, trying not to cry or wake up her sleeping roommate. This was the second time this week that she had had the same nightmare.

She began to calm down after sitting there for awhile. Her eyes now looked to the clock sitting on her bedside table. _2:21AM_. She sighed, wiping the sweat off her face and sat up, looking to the side of her. Her sudden wake-up hadn’t seemed to disturb Popo in the slightest.

Nana stood up from her bed, and quietly walked out of the room. Her head was pounding now that she was properly awake, and her heart still hadn’t slowed down just yet. She headed towards the kitchen, aiming at getting a glass of water and settling down before going back to her room.

The kitchen was dark, and Nana fumbled around to try and find the light. She squinted at its brightness, but quickly recovered to get her drink. She was just finishing pouring her water when she heard a voice behind her.

“Rough night?”

Nana jumped at the voice, and spun around to see Falco leaning against one of the counters.

“Why do you want to know?”

He shrugged. “Just curious.”

Nana stared into her cup of water, watching her reflection waver. She sighed.

“Falco, do you ever think about… you know…”

“Galeem?”

“Yeah.”

He sighed at that, shrugging in response. “Sometimes. Is that what’s keeping you up?”

Nana didn’t respond. Falco shifted in his spot, frowning.

“Look, it doesn’t seem like it, but everyone’s been feeling like that. Even Ridley and that have. It’s not something to be ashamed of.”

She thought back to that day, where she had witnessed Falco’s airwing be obliterated mid-air with him in it. She shuddered at the thought.

“If it’s really bothering you, just talk to someone about it. Not like they don’t know what you witnessed.”

_Yeah, not like I made my best friend watch me die or anything_. Not wanting to argue against him, Nana simply nodded in response, taking her drink and heading out of the kitchen. She thanked Falco as she left, heading back down the halls of the mansion.

\---

When she got back, Popo was awake, startling her when she walked in.

“Jesus, Popo, you scared the hell outta me.”

“Are you alright?” He was sitting up in bed, a look of concern on his face.

“I’m fine,” Nana lied, finishing the rest of her water. “I just needed a drink.”

“I heard you wake up.”

“Yeah, to get a drink-”

“Nana, are you having nightmares again?”

_Damnit_. She hated the fact that he could see through her lies so easily. She sighed defeatedly, which was the only answered that her friend needed. He moved over, motioning for Nana to sit down beside him, which she did. Popo instantly pulled her into an embrace, and she returned it, the memories of that dreadful nightmare coming back to her.

She remembered Falco’s words, and sighed into Popo’s shoulder. “It was about Galeem.”

“Oh.”

They fell silent, sitting there in the dark together. The silence felt like it went on forever before Popo spoke again.

“What happened in it?”

“The usual,” Nana’s eyes were growing heavy, yet her mind was racing. “It showed up. Everyone died. I died. Y’know, like what actually happened.”

Nana could feel Popo’s embrace tightening. “How long have you had these for?”

Nana shrugged at that. “Three weeks. Maybe four.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

Nana’s heart sank at his voice. His worried words were enough to cause her to shed a tear, which she quickly wiped away before he could see it. She just shook her head in response.

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

She could feel herself beginning to cry at that, which only led to the two holding onto each other tighter. Nana could hear Popo mumbling something to her, but she couldn’t hear over her pounding headache. Her eyes began to shut as her tears stopped, and she struggled to stay awake.

Within a few minutes, she had fallen asleep,forgetting about whatever she had dreamt about.

\---

_She was in the village, sitting on a bench next to him. They were drinking hot chocolates as snow fell about them, piling up on the already large piles of snow decorating the area around them. He gave her shoulder a nudge and pointed at a condor in the sky, flying towards the mountain ranges outside their village._

_She smiled up at it, before being dragged away by him to walk around the rest of the village._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Falco was probably so OOC Im so sorry Im not really too familiar with his personality yet


	10. First Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hell yea its flashback time
> 
> Theyre about 6-7 here, idk theyre at least older than in the second fic  
Also fun fact, Nana's appearance as a kid is based off that one piece of official art where she has blonde hair & her parka's based on the American box art for Ice Climber

_It was snowing hard as Popo made his way towards the school. Despite the freezing cold, he was jittery and bouncing the whole way there. Unlike most of the other kids his age, Popo was someone who absolutely adored school, and he was already excited to head back after the summer break._

_And plus, he had heard of a new student coming to the school. That was the main reason for his excitement._

_Based on the fact that his village was essentially in the middle of nowhere, it was rare for Popo to see anyone that he didn’t know. So the idea of a new student at his school made him giddy and excited. He was practically running to the school now, passing other kids and almost running over one of the younger students._

_He didn’t even stop to put his bag down, simply running through the halls of his school and racing to the schoolyard. Kids were beginning to fill the school now, running around and playing in the snow with each other. Popo was scanning the crowd to see if he could find the new student, but to his disappointment, they were nowhere to be found._

_Shaking off his disappointment, he joined the other kids in tossing snowballs at one another. Soon the schoolyard was filled with students, giggling to each other and enjoying the last few precious moments before the new school year began. But, soon enough, one of the teachers came calling out for the children, and they began to pack up and head inside. Popo took one last look around, hoping to catch a look at the new student._

_He did._

_The student, a girl, was talking to one of Popo’s classmates. She wasn’t like anyone that he had ever seen before; she was short, with dark blonde hair much shorter than the other girls at his school had. Her red parka was decorated with strange designs that were not like the usual patterns that Popo saw when he was in town. Her strangeness intrigued him, but the teacher’s calls bought him back to reality._

_He went on forward, looking forward to talking to that strange girl, whoever she was._

_\---_

_By the time lunch came around, Popo’s giddiness had come back up._

_To his absolute luck, the new student had been placed in his class, albeit not next to him. He hadn’t learnt much about her though; he didn’t even know her name. But now that lunch came around, it was his chance to try and befriend her._

_Most of the kids were still inside, lining up for lunch, but Popo had managed to get his food before anyone else, rushing to go eat outside. He sat under the schoolyard’s large birch tree, scouting the area whilst he ate. He was waiting for the new student to come out of the building so he could greet her._

_As more students began to walk onto the schoolyard, Popo’s hope for seeing the new student began to waver. He couldn’t see her anywhere, not even with the other kids in his class. He frowned, trying to spot her amongst the crowd._

_“Hi!”_

_Popo yelped at the sudden voice. He looked up the tree to see the girl sitting on a branch above him, smiling. Popo looked around to see if anyone was watching; the teacher was on the other side of the schoolyard, separating a fight between two older students._

_“You’re Popo, right?” Her accent was thick, which surprised him. Popo looked back up at the girl. He nodded in response, unable to think of anything to say. She grinned in response._

_“I’m Nana.” She jumped down from the tree, landing in front of Popo and startling him again. Popo was shocked by her behaviour- for a new student, she wasn’t shy at all. In fact, she was more confident than any other person Popo had ever spoken to before._

_Popo’s eyes were drawn to her parka; he could see the patterns up close now. They were neatly stitched and were of a red & white pattern, lining the sleeves and bottom of her parka._

_“What are those?” Popo pointed to the pattern on Nana’s sleeve._

_“Oh! It’s a pattern from my village. My mama made it for me.”_

_“Your village?” Popo was intrigued; he rarely heard of the villages outside his own._

_“Yeah!” Nana grinned. “It’s the Haust village.”_

_Popo had heard of it before; his parents made climbing trips there all the time. He had always wanted to visit there, since his parents talked about how pretty the village was._

_“My mom and dad go there sometimes,” Popo sat back down on the seat, and Nana followed. “They say it’s very pretty.”_

_“It is,” Nana swung her legs, kicking the snow below them. “There’s flowers everywhere and we go to flower festivals every year. It’s really fun.”_

_Popo could just imagine what that would look like. His village was too cold to have any pretty flowers growing, even in the summer. His parents had bought back fake flowers from the Haust village before, and they were the prettiest things that Popo had ever seen._

_A bell rang, causing the two children to look towards the building. The teacher was calling for the children, announcing that it was time to head back to their classrooms. Nana and Popo walked back together, chatting all the way until the got back to the classroom & separated back to their seats._

_\---_

_The next day, Nana sat next to Popo in class, beginning the two’s unbreakable friendship._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially I had the idea of Nana being really shy but the idea of her being wild as hell was also very tempting,,,,  
Also yea she has an accent as a kid bc accents are cool as hell, it went away as she got older though


	11. Florist/Biker AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok listen i can explain why this prompt is here  
When I was initially writing my prompts, I sent them to my friends so they could recommend me some. One of my friends suggested this and I thought it so was damn absurd and hilarious that I actually added it.
> 
> This one is romantic-based (I literally could not get this to work platonically without it sounding awkward) so feel free to skip if it makes you feel iffy

The first thing that caught Popo’s eye as he walked into work that morning was the dark-coloured building right across from him.

He had seen builders painting it weeks earlier, but now it was out in plain sight for anyone to see. Red detailing had been painted on and around the door, as well as around the very large window in front of the shop. It intrigued yet baffled him; baffled him especially, since it sat right across from a damn flower shop.

His face must had said it all, for the moment he walked into the store, his coworker Daisy called out to him.

“You saw the new shop too?”

“Yeah,” He walked behind the counter, searching for one of the shop’s many watering cans. “What even is it?”

“A tattoo shop,” Daisy fiddled with a piece of paper. “My friend Samus owns it. She just moved locations.”

“Huh.” Managing to find a half-full one, Popo looked back through the window at the tattoo shop.

“She said she's gonna send one of her workers over here later on. Turns out she really likes decorating the shop with flowers.”

“That’s kind of ironic, don’t you think?” Popo went over to the tulips, which were blooming well, much to his relief. “I mean, the kind of people who go in there don’t really seem like the flower-loving type.”

“Oh you’d be surprised,” Daisy was now setting up for the day, setting up the register. “Samus has a lot of tales to tell. One time this soft, tiny girl came in asking for a full-on dragon tattoo on her back.”

Popo cringed at that. He had never exactly been a fan of being basically stabbed with a needle just to make yourself look pretty. He thought that they were cool, but he thought anyone who actually _got_ them was plain crazy.

Their conversation about the new store died down after that, as the flower shop opened for another day. Today was particularly busy; the addition of the tattoo shop had bought more customers in to gossip about how strange yet cool the new store looked. Not even the addition of Peach, who arrived to help just at the peak of customers, could completely handle the rush of people coming in and out.

By the time 12pm rolled around, Popo was completely worn out. Luckily by this time, the shop was far less busy, as customers were heading out for lunch first before coming to grab any flowers. Popo took advantage of the quiet period to sneak out to the employee staff room for lunch before Daisy could.

He was about halfway through his break, staring at the wall and hoping that it would stay this quiet for the rest of the day, when he heard laughter coming from the shop. His curiosity getting the better of him, he peeked around the door, seeing if he could find where that source of laughter came from.

There he saw Peach (putting more sunflowers in stock), Daisy (behind the counter, laughing at a joke Popo didn’t hear) and a customer, probably no older than he was, laughing with Daisy. The customer was what caught his eye though; she was quite short, with light brown hair and large brown eyes. Despite her soft appearance, her arms were absolutely covered in tattoos underneath a black shirt; he could see some of their designs even from his spot, most being ice-themed.

Daisy mentioned something to her, causing her to laugh again. Popo felt his usual friendly and open nature cease upon hearing her. And yet, he couldn't stop watching her from behind the corner. She was alluring, and it made Popo want to find out more about her.

She turned to look at him, and he quickly hid back behind the door.

Hiding in the break room, he sat down, buried his head in his hands and began to ponder about that strange girl. Who was she? Did she work at that shop across the street? Would she come back again? All these questions pondered Popo until he got off his break.

He didn’t even notice how red-faced he’d gotten over it until Peach pointed it out.

\--

Popo learnt more about her as the week passed on.

For one, her name was Nana. And indeed, she did work for Samus at the tattoo shop. And to Popo’s surprise, she came back almost every day for more flowers, both for the shop and for herself.

He also learnt a few more things just from observation. She was the owner of the cool motorbike that Corrin, another one of his coworkers, never stopped talking about when she saw it. She was funny too, enough that Popo was laughing at her jokes from the break room. She liked water lilies, hated roses and, to Popo’s absolute surprise, loved pink flowers. And to top it off, according to Daisy, most of her tattoos were done by herself- something that shocked him even further, considering how beautiful they looked.

The more often she came in, the more Popo learnt about her, and the more he could feel himself falling for her. Yet, he still hadn’t even dared trying to speak to her. Every time she came in, his usual extroverted personality seemed to evaporate, leaving him quiet and uncharacteristically shy. It was enough to catch the attention of his coworkers, who grew concerned about his strange behaviour.

After a week of her arriving & receiving some comforting words from Daisy, Popo was determined to speak to Nana the next time she arrived. He had been nervous all day though from thinking about it; he had already stuffed up a few orders on accident just because of how jittery he felt.

Nonetheless, he tried to assure himself that everything would go fine. After all, he was just going to serve her. It wasn’t as if he would actually attempt conversation just yet.

The hours seemed to drag on. Today was particularly slow as well, meaning Popo had little to do in terms of distracting himself. He had taken to cleaning up the front counter whilst his other coworkers either tended to plants or hung out in the break room, waiting for something to happen. He didn’t even look up when he heard the bell ring at the front. Assuming it was just another normal customer, he simply uttered a greeting without properly looking up from what he was doing.

That was, until he caught sight of the customer’s arm, and he quickly realised who was in front of him.

“So you finally decided to stop avoiding me.”

Popo’s fingers clenched around the cloth he was holding. He could already feel his cheeks going red, and his voice came out smaller and quieter than usual. “I wasn’t avoiding you.”

“Sure, sure.” She was grinning now, leaning on the counter & blocking where Popo was cleaning. Now with nothing to distract him, he was forced to actually look at her, especially considering she was only about a foot away from his face.

“Anyways, got any more lilies in stock?” Popo’s eyes glanced to the side. To his relief, there was a bundle there, fresh from that morning.

Popo simply nodded, and walked from behind the counter to the flowers. The lilies were pure white, and by the looks of it had already been watered that day. He took them back to the counter, preparing to wrap them up before giving them back to Nana.

For some reason, despite the anxiety he had been feeling all day, he felt the need to start conversation with her.

“You work at that tattoo store across the street, right?”

“Yep!” She grinned, causing Popo’s heart to race. “I’m only on the front desk though.”

“So you don’t like… tattoo anyone at all?”

“Not yet,” Nana twirled her finger around a stray piece of ribbon on the counter. “I mean I could, but Samus doesn’t exactly trust me with inking anyone yet.”

“Can’t see why she doesn’t,” Now that he was actually talking to her, Popo’s nerves had managed to go away, and he was beginning to feel more like himself. “I mean you did most of those yourself, right?” He nodded towards her tattoos. That caused her to go slightly pink, much to Popo’s amusement.

“Aw, geez, that’s real sweet of you. But I only did a couple on me,” She pointed to one on her wrist; a group of blue snowflakes. “Like this one.”

“_Woah,_” Even though it was just a small one, Popo was in awe at the fact that she could even do one at all. “Isn’t it painful though?”

“A little,” Nana shrugged at that. “You get used to it after awhile though.”

Popo finished wrapping up the flowers, and handed them over to Nana. Taking her money, he quickly rung up the price and went to hand her the change.

“You should drop by sometime.” Nana pulled away from the counter.

Popo nodded. “Maybe, if the others ever let me leave here.”

Nana laughed in response. She waved goodbye before heading out of the store. Almost as soon as she left, Daisy appeared from the breakroom, grinning wildly.

“Sooo, how did it go??”

“It went fine.” Now that she was gone, Popo was beginning to feel his repressed anxiety start to show up again.

“Oh good! At least you finally got to talk to- Hey, what’s that?”

Popo noticed the single white lily left on the bench. Picking it up, he noticed a piece of paper wrapped around its stem. Before he could grab it though, Daisy snatched it up, reading over it with hungry eyes.

“Oh my god.”

“What?” Popo put down the flower and tried to read the note, but Daisy held it just out of his reach.

“She gave you her number.”

Popo’s face went bright red. “She gave me what!?”

He snatched the note, reading over it. Daisy was right; Nana had given him her number. His hands clenched around the paper whilst Daisy called over the others to tell them the news.

His smile grew wider the longer he looked at the note. There had been no reason for him to be so anxious at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some upcoming fics might end up either much longer or much shorter than usual, Im sick at the moment so it might affect my writing. I apologise if it does happen


	12. Hurt/Injury

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up longer than I expected oops

Winter had finally settled upon the village. Snow was piled up twice the size as the day before, and buildings & benches were coated in a thin layer of ice. The fountain in the center of town had frozen too, alongside the lakes that sat on the outskirts of town, much to the disappointment of the local fishermen.

Nana and Popo were making their way towards the mountains. Now that the first winter snow had hit, they could safely start travelling up the larger mountains, which were usually covered in thick layers of ice. The climbers had been itching to travel up them for months now, and now that they were relatively frozen & ice-covered, they could go up them without risking falling from hitting a melting piece of ice.

Nana was rushing ahead of Popo, already getting excited to climb once again. She had always loved the thrill of climbing high above everyone else, and the larger mountains practically handed that feeling to her on a silver platter. Popo was calling out to her to slow down, but she wasn’t listening; the excitement of finally getting to go back up those large mountains was too large for her to ignore.

Then she fell.

She hadn’t noticed that she had strayed slightly off the path, and so tripped over a large rock. Upon doing that, she fell off the cliff they were walking on, causing her to scream and alert her friend.

She fell with a thump a few moments later, almost managing to land on her feet. To her relief, the cliff had a small section below it to land on; she and Popo had gone down there many times before. And she knew it wouldn’t be a fuss to get back up- the man-made stairs nearby proved it.

However, her left foot hurt like nothing else. And her head hurt too. And, most importantly, she was sure that she had fucked up her foot.

She managed to pull herself up for a moment, but collapsed back onto the snow. Her head was pounding from the fall, but it was nothing compared to her foot. It was enough to almost bring her to tears. She could feel her foot starting to swell already, but she couldn’t bring herself to sit up and assess the damage. So she just laid in the snow, hoping that Popo had noticed her fall.

To her great luck, he came racing down those rickety wooden stairs immediately afterwards, and almost collided with the cliff wall trying to reach her.

“Nana!” He rushed to her side, almost tripping over himself to get to her. “Nana, are you okay!?”

Nana didn’t respond. She was in too much pain to really pay attention to answering questions. Popo noticed this and instead gently pulled her up, leaning her against the cliff wall. Now that she was up, her head was pounding less, but the pain in her foot didn’t lessen in the slightest- in fact, it hurt even more.

Nana hissed at the pain, shutting her eyes in an attempt to stop her from crying. It went almost as soon as it came, for it began to hurt less the more it stayed stationary.

“How much does it hurt?”

Nana peeked one of her eyes open to look at Popo. He looked very concerned; it was almost saddening the way he was looking at her.

She managed to speak up against the immense pain. “A lot.”

“Can you walk on it?”

Nana shook her head. Popo took Nana’s arm and pulled her up, letting her rest on her good foot. Another wave of pain hit her, as her head and foot began to hurt more, but it went away as she got used to standing.

“We’ll have to walk the whole way back,” Nana could hear the guilt in Popo’s voice. “Can you do that?”

She nodded. “If you can help.”

Popo gave her a sad smile, and began helping her back up to the cliff.

\---

The pain had only gotten worse by the time they reached home. The walk back home had been tediously slow, to the point where Nana could feel her foot getting much worse with every minute. She was relieved that they lived on the village’s outskirts instead of in town; any more walking and she thought that she would collapse.

Unlocking the door, Popo took her inside and laid her on their couch. Nana took off her shoe, preparing to see whatever was underneath. Popo winced at it.

“That is very fractured, Nana.”

Now that her boots were off, Nana could see that her foot was, indeed, very fractured. There was a part slightly bulging to the side, where the fracture had occurred, and it was looking quite swollen. Looking at it made her feel sick, and she turned to look away from it.

Popo mumbled something under his breath before beginning to elevate Nana’s fractured foot with pillows. Nana was relieved that she could finally rest her foot- the pain was beginning to reduce quickly now that she was still. Popo got up and quickly left to head into their kitchen, returning with an ice pack.

“I’ll be back,” He rested the ice pack over Nana’s throbbing foot. “I need to go get bandages.”

Nana nodded, closing her eyes and listening as Popo practically ran out of their house. Now that she was alone, she thought about the events that had occurred that day.

She felt awful for ending up here. Thanks to her stupid mistake, she and Popo would lose weeks of climbing time; neither could climb without the other one there. She should’ve listened to Popo, and slowed down instead of trying to get to the mountains as fast as possible. Now she was here, stuck with a fractured foot and probably not being able to leave the house for months.

She was getting saltier and more upset by the moment.

Popo arrived back quickly with bandages, panting as if he had been running the whole way. He went over to Nana and began bandaging up her foot, being careful not to try and unnecessarily hurt it too much.

He was about halfway through bandaging her foot when she sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Mmm?” Popo looked up in confusion. “What are you sorry for?”

“I mean, I kind of ruined our entire climbing season because I was rushing to start. I should have listened to you. I’m just really sor-”

“Don’t be.”

Popo’s words were uncharacteristically stern, which stunned Nana. “I’d rather you be safe here than out there getting hurt again.”

He finished wrapping Nana’s foot, and flipped back to his concerned yet cheery self. “There. We’ll go see the doctor tomorrow, he’ll know what to do next.”

Nana twirled her foot. It had been bandaged up well; the pain was now far less than what it had been prior. “Thanks, Popo.”

“Not a problem.” Popo smiled, placing the ice pack back over Nana’s foot.

Nana closed her eyes, listening as Popo got up to light the fireplace for the two. She was beginning to enjoy her time indoors already, being coddled by her friend. In fact, she could probably get used to this after a while...

\---

_“So… what are we gonna do now?”_

_“I dunno. We’ll find something eventually.”_

_“Well, since poor old me can’t move now, you should go get me something to read.”_

_“What!? So I’m your personal slave now, Nana?”_

_“Exactly.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact I had to ask my friend on how to help a fractured foot bc he's the only person I know thats had one


	13. Ice Skating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didnt realise I wrote two winter-based fics in a row until it was too late so I apologise for that

A cold storm had finally hit Smashville, and the residents - including the fighters - were taking the cold with glee. People were sprawled out on the streets, filling up coffee shops, playing in the snow or simply walking through the frozen village. Unlike the dreadful summer, the cold didn’t seem to bother anyone, as even the grumpiest of the fighters had been dragged out to enjoy the snow.

However, one of the activities that everyone had been drawn to was ice skating. The lakes of the village had been completely frozen over, so many had flocked to enjoy a rare moment of skating. Even the stages had been frozen over- those who didn’t want to venture out travelled to the Fountain of Dreams, where its sweet water had been covered with a layer of ice.

The Ice Climbers, however, had chosen to venture into the small town, where the majority of the fighters were spending the day. Popo was enjoying the snow, a warm welcome compared to the blistering summer in the months before. They walked along the streets, passing by a variety of shops, from cafes to festive Christmas shops.

Popo felt relaxed. For the first time in almost two weeks, he and Nana could enjoy a day without a battle. He was just looking forward to a day where they could relax and simply enjoy walking around.

That was, until Nana noticed a frozen lake with a stand renting out ice skates.

The moment she saw it, she dragged Popo towards it, despite his protests. For someone who’d spent his entire life in a frozen village, Popo absolutely despised ice skating. Not only did he have awful coordination on the ice, but he had a dreaded fear of skating; he feared of it breaking under him & submerging him in the freezing water. Sure, he used to skate often as a kid, but he had seen be submerged before, and he never wanted to risk it.

But Nana was stubborn, and he couldn’t resist her begging and pleading for very long. He agreed to go, hoping that he could just watch her from the side like he usually did back home.

Nana didn’t let that happen.

“Come _on_, Popo!” Nana groaned as she put on her skates. “Just this once, _please?_”

“No,” Popo crossed his arms and turned away. “I’ll just watch.”

“_Pleeease?_” Nana’s pleading was beginning to get to Popo. “What if I helped you to skate again?”

Popo shook his head.

Nana sighed. “Okay. I’ll just find someone else to skate with me then.”

Nana’s defeated tone was what got to him. He scowled, his stubbornness melting away. “_Fine._ I’ll go on. But only for a little bit.”

Nana’s face lit up and she pulled Popo into a bone-crushing hug. “Oh, thank you!” She pulled him away and grinned. “Trust me, you’re gonna love it just as much as you used to.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.” Popo wasn’t really focus on what she was saying; he was processing the fact that he actually agreed to go on out what was essentially a death trap of frozen water. He was getting nervous just thinking about it.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” Nana seemed to have sensed his worries and attempted to ease them. “If worse comes to worse, there’s heaps of us around to help if you end up breaking your leg or something.”

Popo managed to utter a chuckle from that. “Remember when you broke your ankle trying to do a lu-”

“Ahahaha. Very funny. We don’t talk about that.”

\---

The moment he stepped onto the ice, Popo regretted ever agreeing to go on it.

He could barely stand up; his legs were shaking just trying to keep still. Every time he tried to move, he felt himself getting closer to falling over, so he just stood still trying not to fall. On top of that, he was scared of actually going out on the ice, in case it did happen to collapse the moment he accidently stepped on a thin part. So he was hanging around the edges, trying to maintain balance. 

Meanwhile, Nana was out on the ice enjoying herself, skating past everyone as if it was the easiest thing in the world. She had gotten onto the ice earlier as Popo was doing up his skates, and had already made herself comfortable. Popo had seen her even doing small tricks and jumps earlier, which absolutely terrified him.

She caught him struggling, and skated over to him. “Need a bit of help?”

“Definitely,” Popo looked over her shoulder at the frozen lake. “It’s stable out there, right?”

“Of course it is. People have been skating on it all week.”

“Right.” Despite her words, Popo couldn’t manage to move from his spot on the edge of the ice. A part of him was still worried about going out there, even with Nana.

He sighed defeatedly. “I really don’t wanna go out there Nana.”

Nana looked at him, a worried look on her face. She held out her hands for him to grab. “Popo, do you trust me?”

He stared at her for a moment. Cautiously, he took her hands into his own. “Yes.”

She smiled softly. “Here, just relax. Just move your feet slightly and- yes, just like that.”

Popo was moving now- only slightly, but it was still movement. And even better, he wasn’t stumbling or falling over. It was both terrifying yet also exciting. He regretted thinking that, for as soon as he did, he almost fell right into Nana. He stabilised himself as she laughed.

“Ok, if you want to stop, instead of just falling over do this.” Nana demonstrated, pulling the two of them forward and stopping with her skates (almost causing Popo to fall over her once again).

She let go of him, and Popo almost slipped just as she did that. Now without her help, he attempted to skate forward, with a surprising amount of success. When he tried to stop though, he slipped and fell over, landing hard on the ice. He cringed at the impact, expecting the ice to break or something, but all he got was a very sore tailbone.

Nana skated around him, laughing. “You know, for someone whose job is to climb up ice, you suck at skating on it.”

“Oh shut up.” Popo shakily stood back up, and attempted to try and start and stop once again. This time he managed to succeed, though he did stumble trying to stop.

Nana skated back up to him. “That was good! Except you almost fell.”

“At least I didn’t destroy my whole foot falling over.” Popo snickered as Nana playfully hit him back.

The next hour was filled with Popo learning how to skate with Nana by his side. He was growing more comfortable with being on the ice; his fear of the ice breaking was going away the more he stood on it. He was falling over less as well and even managed to skate and stop without Nana having to save him from falling over. He was, admittedly, proud of his progress.

He was enjoying it a lot more than he was expecting too. He and Nana began trying to race each other as Popo got better at skating (Nana won every time), and he was enjoying watching Nana do jumps and tricks on the ice. He was also enjoying watching other new skaters try their hand at going out, especially since most of them were pretty awful like himself.

It was as if his anxieties and fears had evaporated the moment he actually got on the ice.

\---

The two climbers took a break around lunchtime, heading to a small cafe to enjoy lunch before going back out. Popo’s legs were tiring from skating for so long, but he was starting to itch to get back onto the ice once they finished their meals.

He noticed that Nana had been strangely quiet throughout their whole meal. “Nana, you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, I was just thinking, that’s all.”

“About what?”

Nana glanced at the table. “Why do you hate ice skating so much now? You used to love it so much when we were kids.”

Popo sighed. He was expecting something like this. “It’s kind of an irrational thing.”

Nana leant forward to listen. Popo sighed again.

“Remember when we were younger, and we were skating out on one of the lakes? And the suddenly the ice cracked under you?”

“Oh, I remember now,” Nana shivered at the memory. “I was sick for weeks afterwards. I’m pretty sure I almost drowned too.”

“Yeah, I got like… second hand fear from that. I’d get scared that the ice would collapse from under me if I tried to skate on it. I know, it’s stupid since we climb ice almost every other day, but still.”

Popo could remember the incident as clear as day. The images of Nana being submerged just meters away from him & coming out of the water almost blue were still burned deep into his mind.

“Oh.” Nana looked uncomfortable upon hearing that.

“Today helped a lot though!” Popo waved it off. “Like I’m less worried about going on the ice and that now.”

“If I knew that you were scared then I wouldn’t have taken you out-”

“Nana. Its fine,” Popo resisted the urge to shake some sense into her. “I’m glad you forced me out there today.”

Nana seemed more comforted by that. Popo finished the last of his hot chocolate and stood up.

“Last person to the lake has to do all the cleaning jobs next week.”

Nana didn’t even respond- she immediately bolted, leaving Popo to follow behind her in a hope to catch up.

He didn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was also gonna include that Popo cant swim so that would add onto his fear but this fic was already too long so I just left it out


	14. Formal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im GREATLY unsatisfied with this one but I didn't have time to do a complete rewrite,,,, ugh
> 
> Oh well, take this I guess

Birthdays in the Smash mansion were always celebrated differently. Some, such as the royals of Ylisse, had small, formal parties for a slight few friends. Others, such as the younger fighters, threw gigantic casual parties, inviting everyone from the usual fighters to the assisting Pokemon. And some were in between, with small casual parties or grand balls for the entire cast.

The party for that day was of the latter. Princess Rosalina had decided to celebrate her birthday through a large, grand party in the mansion’s ballroom. Everyone, even the assists, had been invited to celebrate the princess’ birthday- on the deal that it would be a formal occasion.

Nana wasn’t looking forward to it. Not because she didn’t like Rosalina- while she wasn’t close to the princess, Nana didn’t dislike her or anything; in fact, she thought that she was quite enchanting and kind.

It was the fact that it was _formal._

Nana had always hated any kind of formal events. The most formal she had ever been was for festivals in her village, and even then it was a more casual event than anything else. She really wasn’t looking forward to spending hours in a stuffy ballroom, cramped in a dress thicker than her own parka. It was probably the only thing she didn’t miss from the other tournaments she had gone to.

She was already regretting agreeing to go after spending nearly 3 hours looking for dresses with the other girls. She couldn’t understand how it could take 3 _damn hours_ to pick a dress for one night. At least it wasn’t just her fed up; Samus and Lucina were equally as bored, watching the Mario trio fly around the store grabbing as many dresses as they could to try on.

The store they were at wasn’t exactly unknown to Nana; it had been there since her first tournament and she had, admittedly, been intimidated by the intense prices of their clothes. Even now she felt awkward sitting there amongst clothes worth more than her entire house. She hadn’t dared to touch anything in fear of accidentally ruining them.

“Peach, I apologise if I come off as rude, but how much longer are we going to be?” Lucina asked from beside Nana.

Peach turned around from looking at a gold dress to face her. “Oh, not much longer at all! We just need to find a few more things.”

Nana repressed the urge to groan, and took back to staring at the overly-decorated ceiling. That was, until she felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked back to see Peach standing in front of her, holding a very expensive dress.

“Nana I think this will look absolutely wonderful on you!”

It was a bright pink dress, knee-length (the only good thing about it), poofy and definitely not Nana’s style. She grinned sheepishly, and tried to get out of trying it on. “Thanks, but I don’t really think I can afford it.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll cover the cost!”

_Great._ Too polite to tell Peach that she really didn’t want to wear it & just wanting to hurry up and go back to the mansion, Nana simply agreed to try it on so she could get out of there as fast as she could.

\---

Nana regretted being impatient.

She had only been there for an hour and was ready to go home. Her shoes, a size too small because she didn’t want to try on another pair, were hurting her feet. The dress’ fabric was irritating her legs. The entire trip that day (which had lasted an additional two hours) had left her tired and ready to just sit down and call it a day.

“That rough, huh?” Popo was listening to her rant about the entire day. He was lucky; all he had done was borrowed a suit from one of the other fighters and called it a day.

“Yeah,” Nana sighed, leaning up against a wall. The ballroom was packed, filled with almost everyone- even Crazy & Master Hand had showed up. She couldn’t enjoy herself though, with her feet aching in pain. “I kind of just wanna leave to be honest.”

“We could go back to the room if you want.”

Nana shook her head. Despite being tired, she didn’t want to head back just yet; she felt as if it was rude to seclude herself inside her room. Nana noticed Popo glancing around for a moment, before turning back to her.

“Marth showed me this secret spot the other day. We can go there.”

The idea of an unknown spot in the mansion perked up Nana’s mood. She nodded, and the two began an attempt to sneak out.

Luckily they didn’t really need to be secret about it; everyone was too distracted talking to each other to focus on the two climbers. The moment they were out of the room, Nana breathed a sigh of relief and threw off her shoes. She didn’t have much time to relax though, since Popo walked on ahead without her, causing her to run to catch up.

They walked through the mansion halls, turning around corners as Popo scouted for wherever they were going. Nana was about to ask if he knew what he was doing when he suddenly raced ahead, gesturing to Nana to follow. She did, ending up at a dead end.

Popo frowned, scanning the bricks. “From what I remember, you have to press it like this….” He tapped four bricks in order, before stepping back.

To Nana’s surprise, it opened.

Popo walked ahead, and Nana followed. It was a dark, dimly lit corridor that, in all honestly, scared her a little bit; it was dirty enough for her to force on those small shoes again. Popo was unaffected however, and he began to talk about where they were going.

“Marth said that he found it in the last tournament. Apparently it was plans for a new training stage or something in one of the gardens, but they scrapped it before it was finished. This was supposed to be the entry to it, since you can’t get to it from anywhere else.”

“Does anyone else know about this?” Nana ran her hand across the brick wall, before pulling back after feeling something slimy.

“Only Marth and Roy.”

“Explains why we can never bloody find them half the time.”

The two stopped at a wooden door. Popo grinned at her, before opening it.

The door opened to a secret garden. The outlines of a stage were there in the grass; the ‘stage’ was covered in flowers, with a single tree on the right side. Hedges covered the sides of the area, making it virtually impossible to get to or get out of. Despite that, a few animals lurked in the area; Nana could see a few butterflies still active & signs of burrows scattered around.

“It’s beautiful.” Nana stepped in and took off her shoes, smiling widely.

Popo turned to a nearby bush. “Plus, it’s got this too,” He pulled it back to reveal a speaker. “We can hook it up to the ballroom’s music or have our own.”

Nana’s smile turned into a grin. “Oh, _sweet!_ How does it work?”

“Here,” Popo pointed to a knob on the corner of the speaker. He fiddled it slightly until classical music flowed out. “That’s what’s playing in the ballroom right now.”

“That’s kind of lame.”

“Well it’s what we’re getting, ‘cause I forgot to bring my own.”

Nana pouted, but succumbed to Popo’s decision. They made their way to a bench, sitting just outside of the ‘stage’. Nana’s eyes were beginning to grow droopy, and she focused on the animals surrounding the area in order to keep herself awake; she managed to spot a small squirrel chasing something up a tree.

The music changed and became softer in tone. Popo sighed. “I bet they’re probably doing a slow dance or something.”

“Gross.”

Popo playfully hit Nana, who laughed. She hit him back. “What?”

“It’s _not_ gross,” Popo stuck his tongue out at her. “You’re just jealous because you suck at dancing.”

Nana raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“I said what I said,” He gave her a cocky grin. “Unless you want to prove me wrong.”

“Oh I _will._” Nana pulled Popo off of his feet, and dragged him in the middle of the ‘stage’ to prove that his statement was entirely inaccurate.

It was how the two ended up falling over each other, staining their well-dressed clothes with grass stains and laughing at how ridiculous they were being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine that getting to the training stages is different than actual stages; training stages can be accessed at any time through the mansion but normal stages cant.
> 
> Also the next ones gonna be another AU bc I cant get enough of them


	15. Mythology AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ive always absolutely LOVED mythology,,,, I really wanted to include it so-  
I tried really hard on this one, it was a struggle to get any English sources for it so I apologise if there's some mistakes (particularly with Nana)
> 
> Popo is a Nøkken, a water spirit said to drown young women & children  
Nana is a Sjörå, a charming water spirit similar to a nymph

Lucina shivered under her armour, trekking through the snow. It was cold, very cold, and Lucina was beginning to regret taking over Roy’s station. She walked faster, attempting to keep herself warm as the sky turned dark. As stars began to twinkle in the sky, she thought of her mission; a way to distract herself from freezing outside.

Marth had bought the entire group together to discuss the issue. The Kori village had been experiencing strange occurrences for several weeks- the sound of a violin late at night, a white, ghostly horse resting near one of the village’s lakes and screams coming out of the blue from the same lake. Marth hadn’t taken this too seriously until disappearances started to occur. He had sent his crew, Lucina included, to investigate.

They had been there for several days, and had already experienced some of the events. Lucina had awoken one night to the sound of a violin, playing a sweet sound from the window. It took all her might to stop Robin from investigating the noise; something about it was suspicious to Lucina, and she wanted to wait until the morning.

When they had visited a village elder the morning after, he admitted that they had heard the Nøkken- a malevolent water spirit that was most likely responsible for the recent disappearances. Lucina and the others had decided on a new course of action.

To find the Nøkken and kill it.

Lucina soon caught notice of Roy’s flaming hair, and yelled out to him. He turned to her, and walked to meet her.

“Have you heard anything yet?” Lucina inquired.

“Nope,” Roy shook his head. “The elders said it’s most active at midnight. You sure you’ll be alright out here by yourself?”

Lucina nodded. “I can handle it.”

Roy nodded, and turned to head back to the main village. He stopped for a moment, and took off his coat.

“Take it. You’re gonna need it out here.”

Lucina ran a hand over it. It was of good quality, with a fur lining and thick inside. “Thank you Roy.”

“Not a problem!” Roy grinned before turning back to the village. Lucina watched him until the snow blocked her vision. She turned back, preparing for the long night ahead of her.

She was to guard the east side of the village; Ike was on the north, Corrin on the south & Marth on the west. Lucina had explored the east side as much as she could over the past few days; it was almost entirely lakes and mountains, much to her worry. Her sword bumped her leg, assuring her slightly. She had heard that steel could prevent the creature’s attack; she had her sword made of the stuff just in case.

Lucina began her walk, thankful for Roy’s coat. Tonight was especially cold, as a storm had hit the night before. She could feel ice seeping and melting in her shoes, and she cringed at feeling wet fabric between her toes. Still, she marched on, hand on her sword just in case someone jumped out.

She approached a hill, allowing her to get a glance over the entire village. She climbed it, and looked out towards the town square. Her eyes were drawn to the large clock. _6:38PM_.

She sighed. Tonight was going to be very long.

\---

With the night quiet and no sign of any creature, Lucina decided to take a short break from patrolling. Sitting down on the hill, she unclicked a small flask from her belt, and took a drink of the warm liquid. She was thankful for Ike’s sweet cooking, especially on a cold night like tonight. As she drank the soup, she looked at the town’s clock. _12:04AM_. Only a few more hours before she could return back to the village.

Lucina finished off the soup, and reclicked the flask back to her belt. Now refreshed for more patrolling, she got up, and prepared to set off again. As she set off down the hill, she heard a familiar sound.

A violin, playing in the distance.

Lucina stopped, hand over her sword. She walked quietly towards the sound, pulling out her sword and preparing for whatever was to come. She noticed that the music was coming from the large lake meaning only one thing- the Nøkken was near. She hid herself behind a tree, and took a deep breath, before jumping out to see what was there.

Nothing. There was nothing.

The music was still playing, but there was nobody there. Lucina was confused. She looked around, expecting to see someone there, but only found herself. She ran a hand through her hair, desperately looking to see if there was another soul around.

Her eyes caught the silhouette of someone sitting on the lake’s edge. Slowly, she approached the figure, prepared to attack if it did end up being the Nøkken.

It wasn’t. In fact, it was a young woman, maybe a little younger than herself. Her hair, which she was combing, was brown and shoulder-length. She was clad in only a light, pink dress, despite the bitter cold- yet she seemed unaffected by the weather. She didn’t look like a village native, which only added more concern to her appearance.

And yet, Lucina felt infatuated by her.

The girl turned to Lucina, and smiled. “It’s a lovely night, isn’t it?”

Lucina felt stumped. She could only nod in response. The girl turned back to look at the lake. Lucina spoke up.

“Miss, I don’t mean to be rude, but why are you out here?”

The girl hummed. “This is my home.”

Lucina frowned. The girl was making no sense. “Your home?”

“Yes. I’m waiting for a friend.”

Lucina noticed that she had suddenly gotten closer to the girl. She sighed. “You must be cold out here though. Especially in a dress like that.”

“Oh, I’m fine. My friend will be here soon anyways.”

Lucina was beginning to feel uneasy. She decided to press more questions. “Who is your ‘friend’?”

“He’s a lovely boy,” The girl gave a dreamy smile. “We help each other with everything. He’s been very worried though, because nobody will come see him aside from me.”

Red flags were going off in Lucina’s mind. But she couldn’t move; she felt stuck in place. She asked another question, trying to stall for time to see what she could do.

“And why won’t they visit him?”

The girl stopped coming her hair. She was still, her hair blowing in the icy wind. She closed her eyes, and smiled.

“He’s here.”

Lucina hadn’t noticed that the music was growing closer.

She turned to the lake to see someone emerging from it. They had short, dark hair, with what looked to be sticks decorating their hair. Their eyes were blue, a dark blue that seemed to pierce through the even darker night. They were elegantly dressed in clothing that Lucina had only seen on nobles and royals like herself; despite emerging from water, their clothing seemed completely dry.

But it was what they were holding that scared Lucina. They were holding a violin, playing sweet music from it.

_The Nøkken._

The girl next to her smiled. “Thanks for keeping me company. He’ll be happy to see you too.”

She took Lucina’s sword from her, with strength that Lucina couldn’t struggle against. The Nøkken was getting closer, still playing its music. Lucina tried to back up, attempting to get away as soon as she could.

The girl pushed her into the lake.

The lake was freezing cold. Lucina struggled to swim and get back to the lakebed. The girl simply watched, before giggling and jumping into the water with her, leaving the sword on the lakebed. Realising her situation, Lucina tried to pull herself up, or at least reach for her sword before anyone could get to her.

She screamed as something grabbed at her leg, dragging her into the depths of the lake.

\---

“That’s all that we found.”

Marth looked over the remains. A sword, a badly-damaged red coat & a flask, still with a bit of tomato soup in it. 

“She’s been gone for two days Marth, we need to call it-”

“Ike, we can’t just pretend this didn’t happen! Something out there got her, and we need to destroy it before it can harm anyone else!”

The team fell silent. Marth’s face turned dark as he grabbed Lucina’s sword. He turned it over, it’s shiny steel still untouched.

“We’ll go after whatever took her. No matter what it takes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im actually super proud of this one, its probably my best so far lmao
> 
> There may possibly be another mythology-inspired fic in the future, Im still not entirely certain, so look forward to that


	16. Gaming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just pure crack Im so sorry

_RoysOurBoy: guys_

_RoysOurBoy: listen_

_GoogleChrom: ???_

_RoysOurBoy: i got us a minecraft server_

_PhantomJoker: Seriously?_

_RoysOurBoy: yea lol master hand let me_

_RoysOurBoy: 8pm tonight. all of us go on it_

_HyrulesRoyal: Can it fit all of us?_

_RoysOurBoy: it should_

_RoysOurBoy: its survival mode free-for-all btw_

_IceQueen: You do realise half of us don’t have computers right?_

_RoysOurBoy: steal a laptop from the computer room and get an account, me and marth got minecraft on all of them already_

_RoysOurBoy: also anyone with a steve or alex skin will immediately be executed so get a new skin_

\---

“How are we supposed to get on??”

Nana frowned. “Did you copy the link?”

“Oh, right.”

Nana was watching the laptop, waiting for everyone else to get online. It was Roy’s idea to get a Minecraft server for… whatever reason. Nana had never played it, but she had heard about it from some of the younger fighters, and was actually getting quite excited to play it.

“Popo, you’re an idiot.” Roy’s voice came from Popo’s computer, snickering at him.

“Shut up!”

To Popo’s credit, a lot of the other fighters had been struggling to get on as well. Nana could still hear Lucina in the chat trying to just open up the game. Only Nana, Roy and a couple of other people were currently on, waiting for everyone to join.

Eventually everyone managed to get on (after Lucina got some help from Chrom). Roy’s voice came from the chat.

“Okay guys, just go off and do your own thing. You can kill people, build your own house, make a farm, whatever. Just try not to die.”

“How do I move?” Peach’s voice came through the speakers.

“W, S, A, D. Attack and destroy with left mouse, place blocks with right. Numbers are for the hotbar slots, E is for inventory and the space button is to jump,” Nana could see Roy was already off, heading north. “Oh, and shift is to sneak.”

Now knowing at least how to play, Nana sped off opposite to Roy, following behind who she assumed was Cloud, Joker and Daisy. She wasn’t sure exactly of what she was gonna do, but at least she knew how the controls worked.

Her and Popo made their way to a forest-like area, full of animals. She noticed Joker punching at some wood, and she followed suit, managing to punch down the whole tree. The chat had turned into mini-conversations between the fighters, so Nana muted it for the moment before turning to Popo.

“What are we gonna do?”

Popo muted his own chat, turned to her and shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe build a house? And like a small farm?”

“Wow, how domestic of you.”

Popo stuck his tongue out at her before turning back to the game. “Would you rather die of starvation & get laughed at by everyone or live in a _wonderful_ house with a _wonderful_ farm that _your_ best friend made you build?”__

_ _Nana sighed. “Whatever Popo.”_ _

_ _She turned the chat back on to hear Lucas screaming because he found a spider. Ness’s screams followed a minute after as he fell into lava chasing after his friend._ _

_ _Nana looked back at Popo. “You know what, making a house and farming doesn’t sound that bad anymore.”_ _

_ _Popo grinned. “Glad to hear you finally decided to agree with me.”_ _

_ _\---_ _

_ _An hour into the game and about half the fighters had already died at least once._ _

_ _Nana was surprised she and Popo hadn’t died yet. They had managed to find a nice flat area and had built a house; its where they had been the entire game. Sure, they’d done some mining and almost got killed by skeletons but still, they were alive. The same couldn’t be said for the others; Lucina had died at least once every 10 minutes & Lucas had been relying on Ness in order to stay alive._ _

_ _Nana was enjoying herself though. It was a fun game, even including the monsters (or mobs, as Roy had called them), and she was already getting addicted to building and crafting. Popo was the same, if not more invested; he was already building a barn in case they got any horses. They had even managed to get themselves a dog, which Popo had refused to stop it from following him._ _

_ _Now it was night though, and the two were hidden in their little house. The chat was going insane at the moment; Olimar’s whole farm had just been blown up, Ike was defending a village raid, Fox had fallen down a cave and was now being ganged up on by zombies, & Lucina had blown herself up trying to raid a temple. Nana and Popo themselves were hiding in the upper level of their house, waiting for the sun to rise._ _

_ _“Guys, calm down!” Roy yelled over the commotion. “If you’re having trouble, I got a bunch of iron so I can give you armour!”_ _

_ _“Where are you though!?” Chrom yelled back._ _

_ _“At the start!”_ _

_ _Nana’s ears perked up at that. She had come across a few of the fighters wearing armour in-game. From what little she still knew about the game, armour could stop them from getting hurt as much. She and Popo were going to need it, especially since she was getting sick of just hiding in the house every time it turned to night._ _

_ _Before Nana could move in the game though, Popo spoke up, as if he had read her mind._ _

_ _“I’ll go.”_ _

_ _Nana simply nodded, and stayed stationary as Popo left. She paced their wooden house, sorting out their items (it made her realise that they had a lot of wheat) and smelting the few ores that they had managed to actually find. She looked over Popo’s shoulder, seeing that he was pretty close to where they had started. She looked back at her own screen, deciding to head out and go looking for a cave to explore._ _

_ _Then she heard Popo scream from behind her._ _

_ _Nana jumped, almost dropping the computer, as Popo’s scream came from both her computer and from across the room. She turned to him. “Popo! Are you alright?!”_ _

_ _ _“OUR DOG JUST DIED!”_ _ _

_ _Nana stopped. _“WHAT!?”__ _

_ _She turned around and saw Popo’s screen. He looked absolutely devastated; he hadn’t even realised that he had been spotted by a group of mobs._ _

_ _Everyone in the chat’s attention turned to them._ _

_ _“Oh my god.”_ _

_ _“Popo, Nana, I’m so sorry.”_ _

_ _“F.”_ _

_ _“We can find you guys another one!!”_ _

_ _The climbers couldn’t press on their now-dead dog for long though, because just mere moments later, Popo got ambushed by said mobs. As Nana rushed out of the cave to try and find where he had been, she too was trapped by a swarm of zombies, skeletons and creepers, and struggled to run away from them._ _

_ _She managed to run back to where Popo had been, collected what little stuff he had on him when he died… and then she died from a creeper._ _

_ _Nana just stared at the game over screen, dumbfounded, as Captain Falcon immediately rushed over and seized all her items._ _

_ _“I can’t believe it. We lost everything.”_ _

_ _“That’s just how the game goes Nana,” Roy called out from the chat. “Could be worse though. Wolf lost all his dogs when I convinced him to play for the first time. He had like 10 of ‘em.”_ _

_ _Nana frowned. She respawned back in the house, and quickly seized items from their chests- stone weapons, food, a flint and steel, a TNT block that Popo had stolen from Robin. Popo knew exactly what she was doing and began grabbing his own items. They quickly set themselves back up and went towards where the majority of everyone was; back at the spawn point, getting iron from Roy._ _

_ _They weren't going to hide from everyone anymore._ _

_ _No, they were going to wreck as much havoc as they could._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can we get an F for Nana and Popo's minecraft dog


	17. Apart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The more I write the more I realise that I keep adding the FE boys into everything I swear its not intentional

Under most circumstances, it was rare to have major weeks off during the Smash tournament. Sure, all the fighters were allowed a day or two off during intense weather (such as snow or heat), or when there was a holiday such as New Years or Christmas, but usually an entire week off was unheard of. The only time Popo had heard of such a thing happening was when Young Link took a few weeks off to recover from a broken bone, a good 3 tournaments ago.

Something must have happened between tournaments however, as Master Hand had now granted an entire week free for the fighters to do whatever they wanted- visit back home, explore other fighter’s universes or just hang around the mansion. He hadn’t offered an explanation for this sudden change, but it wasn’t unwelcomed; the fighters were thrilled to have a break, especially one as long as a week. Popo was excited to return back home with Nana, even if it was for just seven days.

Nana, however, had other plans.

The Smash girls had decided to plan a trip to some of the kingdoms of Peach’s world for the week, and Nana had been invited to go with them. Popo was, admittedly, worried about her going, especially since he had no idea where exactly they were going to be. Nana had tried to assure him, but he was still not entirely convinced.

“Popo, it’s just for a week. I’ll be fine.” Nana was finishing packing the rest of her bag. She was supposed to leave at almost any moment now, so she and the girls could reach the Mushroom Kingdom in time to explore before dinner.

“Yeah, but it’s just so far away,” He sighed, sitting on his bed & resting his chin in his hand. “I don’t even know where you’re gonna be half the time.”

“I don’t either honestly. Peach is keeping most of it a big secret.” She was struggling to zip up her overly-filled bag, and had resorted to putting all her weight on it to try and close it.

“Can we even talk while you’re over there?”

“Of course we can! I think you’ll have to stay here though, ‘cause I can’t call back home.” Nana finally managed to close the suitcase, and she collapsed onto the bed in relief.

“You’ll be alright without me, right?” Nana asked, sitting up on her bed.

“I’ll be fine. Marth’s staying back so I’ll just stick with him,” Popo was lucky that Marth had decided to stay behind all week instead of going back home with most of the other Fire Emblem cast. “I’m just worried about you.”

“You always are.” Nana grinned back at him.

Peach arrived as the two finished talking with perfect timing, lightly tapping on the climber’s open door.

“Nana! Are you ready to go now?”

“Yep! Just finished packing.” She got up, suitcase in one hand & pulling Popo up with the other. The duo walked out of the room, heading down the halls until they managed to get outside.

Popo was shocked at what he saw. A grand carriage was waiting out in front of them; Popo could see that a few of the girls were already inside, waiting to go. Nana’s suitcase was taken away by a Toad, who carried it to the back with all the other bags. Daisy called out from inside the carriage, urging Nana to come wait with them.

Before Nana could head off though, Popo pulled her into a tight embrace. “I’m gonna miss you so much.”

“You’re such a sap,” Nana smiled before pulling away. “But I’m gonna miss you too.”

Before Popo knew it, the girls had left. He watched until he couldn’t see the carriage anymore. He was already beginning to miss Nana.

“You’re gonna be alright without her?” Popo turned to look at Marth, who had just walked out. Popo nodded.

“Of course I’ll be fine. It’s not like I can’t do anything without her”

\---

He was not fine.

He was fine on the first day. As it turned out, a couple of people had stayed behind, so Popo spent the rest of the afternoon and night with Marth, Lucas and Chrom. The four had mostly been screwing around in Lucas’s room, playing video games and watching whatever they could get ahold of. By the time Nana called that night, Popo was in a much better mood than he was expecting.

It dropped when he found out that Nana wouldn’t be able to call him at all.

As it turned out, Nana would be practically unreachable for the rest of the week, as most of the kingdoms simply couldn’t handle inter-universal calls. Any reassured thoughts of her safety were absolutely crushed by this. Had it not been for the other three at least attempting to assure that Nana would be okay, Popo would have become absolutely distraught.

The rest of the week dragged out painfully. He tried to enjoy himself, but the thought of Nana possibly in danger, in a place where he couldn’t reach her, just lingered in the back of his head. It was relieved slightly when a postcard came back from the Cascade Kingdom, where Nana’s scraggly writing detailed how amazing her week had been, but it came back within a couple of days.

The other boys were beginning to worry more about Popo with every passing day.

“Popo, seriously, are you okay?” Marth had made the four lunch, and had noticed that Popo had barely eaten- a rarity considering how large his appetite usually was. “You’ve been acting strange all week.”

“I’m fine.”

“Popo, it’s okay if you miss her,” Popo looked to the side at Chrom, who was speaking to him. “It’s nothing to brush off or be ashamed of. She’ll be back tomorrow, so you’ll be able to see her soon.”

Popo sighed. “Thanks Chrom.” He wasn’t sure why he was still so worried, considering that she had sent him a postcard to him a few days prior. He felt stupid for being so worried.

“It’s natural to be worried about her when she’s so far away,” Lucas, who was usually quiet compared to the other two boys, spoke up. “My friends could talk to me every day but I’d still be worried. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Popo shivered at that. Lucas was a strange boy; he seemed to be able to read the minds of everyone, and knew exactly what to say. Ness was the same way. Popo found it quite creepy- it felt as if they knew something that he didn’t.

The rest of lunch went without much incident. Popo stayed mostly silent as the two blue-haired boys chatted about things that Popo really didn’t understand or care to learn about. The four split up once they finished; Marth & Chrom headed out to train together, Lucas headed out somewhere else & Popo retreated to his room.

He sat in bed, attempting to read one of his books, but his mind kept racing from the conversation at lunch. Chrom and Lucas’s attempts at reassurance were getting to him, even though Popo knew that they really shouldn’t. He gave up trying to relax, and simply laid in bed, hoping he’d somehow fall asleep and forget everything that he was worrying about.

A faint knock at the door jolted Popo up. Realising that it was just a knock, he fell back down onto the bed. “Come in.”

Lucas entered the room. He seemed very worried & nervous, fiddling with his fingers and staring at the floor. He took a deep breath before speaking.

“I want to help.”

Popo frowned. “Huh?”

“You’ve been really upset about Nana since she’s been gone,” Lucas looked at him. “I wanna help you to not worry about her as much.”

Popo turned away from him. “Lucas, I already told you, I’m fine.”

“No you’re not.”

The sternness that came from the usually soft Lucas startled Popo. He turned to look at the blond boy and frowned.

“And how can you do that exactly?”

Lucas approached the bed & knelt down next to it. “It might hurt a little bit, I’m sorry.”

He placed his fingers on Popo’s head, and closed his eyes. Popo felt pinpricks where Lucas’s fingers were rested, but he resisted flinching or complaining. He could feel himself getting light-headed and sleepy the longer Lucas did whatever he was doing.

Eventually Lucas pulled away. Popo was in shock; whatever Lucas had done, it had made him feel much better already. Somehow, he felt significantly less worried than he did just a few moments prior.

He sat up and turned to Lucas. “What _was_ that?”

“It’s called Lifeup. It heals physical and emotional pain. Master Hand banned Ness and I from using it in battle, he said it would be cheating.”

Popo rubbed at his head where he had felt the pricks. He smiled. “Thank you Lucas.”

“It’s alright,” Lucas got up from the floor, and held out his hand for Popo. “It should help for a few hours at least.”

Popo got up from the bed. “We should probably see what Marth and Chrom are doing.”

“Good idea.”

The two boys headed towards the training room. Now in a much better state of mind, Popo began to pick up speed, eventually racing towards the room with Lucas right on his tail, and proceeded to scare both of the Fire Emblem boys when he arrived. The four boys spent much of their afternoon and evening in the training room, messing around with one another and fooling around with weapons that they would usually never touch. The entire time, Popo felt relaxed & calm, completely different than how he had felt for most of the week.

When Nana and the other girls came home the next day, Popo realised that he really had no reason to worry about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk how psi works so uhhhhh im sorry i just wanted to add lucas bc i love him


	18. First Lessons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was meant to write this a good odd 5 stories ago whoops
> 
> Theyre around 11-13 here bc I still refuse to believe theyre 8 years old

_“You two ready?”_

_“As ready as we’ll ever be!”_

_Nana and Popo stood together at the bottom of the mountain. A few large backpacks sat next to a rock, filled with food and items for their journey. Nana could see some of the items peeking out from the middle bag- a rope, a few ice axes, an ice tool. She was very excited; today was the first time that she and her best friend were going to be able to climb the mountains surrounding their village._

_Nana had been dreaming of this day since childhood. Her old village valued ice climbing & mountaineering like it was their livelihood: almost every adult had gone climbing at least once in their lifetime, even her own mother. It was just as popular here as well, though only a few chosen people were given the title as an Ice Climber; people who travelled up the mountains for a living, doing business required by the village elders._

_She was lucky that she didn’t have to go to public lessons like others her age. Popo’s parents were former climbers, and his mother had offered to take both of them out and teach them. Nana was incredibly thankful, and hadn’t stopped showing her appreciation the entire trip up to the mountains._

_Now that they were here though, Nana’s attention had drifted towards the mountains she was about to scale. She wanted to go after the largest one she could find._

_Popo’s mother didn’t agree with Nana’s plans._

_“Alright! Now, we’ll start with one of the smaller ones, they’ll be a lot easier for you two to handle right now.”_

_“Awww,” Nana pouted, crossing her arms. “Why can’t we do one of the bigger ones?”_

_“Sorry Nana, but it’s much too steep for you two to climb,” Popo’s mother shook her head. “Most ice climbers can’t even climb them without struggling.”_

_She headed over to the bags, pulling out a pair of spiked footwear. “To start off with, you two need these on.”_

_“What are these?” Popo took the pair and looked at them._

_“Crampons, dear. They’ll help you stick to the ice without slipping.”_

_Nana took a second pair. “And how do you put them on?”_

_“Don’t worry, I’ll help you two. It can be a bit difficult.”_

_The two sat and listened as Popo’s mother explained how to set up a climb. Nana couldn’t process much; she tried to pay attention, but was far too excited to actually pay attention to all the techniques and knots and whatever else she was supposed to be noting down. By the time they were actually getting to climbing, she was all jittery and had to stop herself from racing ahead._

_The mountain they headed to was a relatively small one, with lots of edges for them to rest on during their climb. Nana was disappointed, but it didn’t damper her spirit. She waited for Popo’s mother to pull out all their tools, fidgeting with her fingers whilst she waited._

_“Did you get anything that mom said?” Popo, who was standing next to her, whispered to her._

_“...No,” Nana grinned sheepishly, her cheeks flushed red from embarrassment. “How did you guess?”_

_“You were staring at the mountains the whole time. But it’s okay, I got us covered.” He winked at her, which made her laugh._

_The two turned back to Popo’s mother, as she finished grabbing what they needed._

_“Before any climbing pair begins, they must pick a leader,” Popo’s mother stood in front of them, holding two pairs of ice axes. “One of you will have to lead.”_

_It went about as well as one would think._

_“Me! Me! No, wait, me!” The two shouted at the same time._

_Popo’s mother sighed. “Okay, Popo, you can lead for today. Nana, you’ll lead next time. How about that?”_

_“Fine.” Nana frowned as Popo smiled at this._

_Popo’s mother handed them the ice axes. She smiled._

_“Now we can begin.”_

_\---_

_Nana learnt that ice climbing was not as glamorous as her mother made it out to be._

_First of all, it was labouring. It took all her strength to even get a few meters above the ground, and her arms and legs ached from going up. By the time they had reached the first break, Nana was absolutely puffed out, and was ready to go back home and rest._

_Then there was the whole leader situation. She and Popo had been bickering the whole way up over small little things; as it turned out, having two stubborn people working together wasn’t the best idea. They had settled their differences once they reached the break, but their stubbornness was already proving to be a problem._

_And third, it was cold. The cold was far worse up on the mountains than down on the ground, and Nana couldn’t stop shivering under her parka. She was glad that Popo’s mother had made them hot soup for lunch, which she had eaten quickly._

_Despite that, Nana was absolutely loving it. Climbing was fun, and even though Popo was proving to be a bit of a pain, she didn’t mind following his lead- even if he did complain about being sore way too much._

_“So, you two ready to head back yet?” Popo’s mother was packing up the remains of their lunch. They had decided to have a late lunch whilst they took a break._

_“Five more minutes.” Popo was lying on the snow, just as tired as Nana was. Nana was next to him, trying to put off wearing out her limbs any more._

_Nana snickered as Popo was hit square in the chest with his bag, thrown by his mother._

_“You said that 10 minutes ago Popo. We have to leave soon.”_

_Nana managed to stand up and grab her backpack. Her legs were aching, but her will to head back home was stronger. She pulled Popo up, who was complaining about being almost winded by his mother._

_“Now, getting back down is a bit harder, since you’re heading backwards. You two need to pay extra attention to this.”_

_Nana and Popo listened as the latter’s mother explained how to get down, They followed her to the edge, copying her actions._

_“We’ll go back down the way we came up. We can go down different ways, but this one is the safest for now.”_

_They quickly began to descend down the mountain; whilst it was slightly harder than going up, Nana was getting back into enjoying the climb. They were mostly silent, aside from the occasional instruction from Popo’s mother._

_“How much longer mom?” Popo began to complain as they got closer to the ground._

_“It’ll be longer if you keep complaining.”_

_“I thought you wanted to go climbing Popo,” Nana playfully spoke up. “I guess we’ll need a new leader who actually wants to climb to take us back home.”_

_“A blind condor could take us back better than you can.”_

_“Hey!”_

_“That’s enough you two,” Popo’s mother said sternly. “You’ll never get back down if you keep bickering like this.”_

_They fell silent, slowly backing back down the icy mountain. It grew colder as they descended, as the evening freeze began to settle in on the village. Nana was incredibly disappointed; it was even colder than it had been when they were having lunch, and to top it off, she felt like her limbs were going to collapse under her._

_But on top of it all, she was smiling widely. Despite the hard labour and bickering, Nana had absolutely loved every minute of it. Popo was just as wide-eyed and happy; it was as if any troubles between them had disappeared once they reached the bottom. They were chattering wildly as they packed up their tools with Popo’s mother, the thrill of climbing still flowing through their veins._

_“So, did you two enjoy it?” Popo’s mother walked them back to the village, hauling the tools and bags with her._

_“Of course!” Nana was grinning. “It was amazing!”_

_“But tiring,” Popo rubbed at his muscles. “At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”_

_“I’m glad that didn’t discourage you two,” Popo’s mother laughed. “I’ll set up another lesson for you guys soon.”_

_“Tomorrow!”_

_“Nana, you need your rest first. Maybe next week.”_

_When Nana arrived home, all she spoke about was her climbing lesson. She couldn’t wait until the next one._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really didnt want to look up ice climbing footage so the way they climb is probably not accurate at all lmfaO


	19. Snowed In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im not particularly proud of this one either but oh well
> 
> Also Im not even sorry about how much winter is featured in these fics bc what else am I gonna do

Winter wasn’t always pretty and perfect for the village. More often than not, the villagers were subject to snowstorms, blizzards, borderline hypothermia, and everything in between. They had learnt to deal with such issues, but it was always an annoyance to wake up to a horrible storm blasting outside your home.

Popo never knew just how bad some of the other villages got.

He and Nana had gone to visit the Haust village for the week, and it had been fiercely cold the entire time. The two had visited in the past before and Popo never remembered it being this cold; on the contrary, it was often warmer than back home. But this year, the two had visited right in the heart of one of their harshest winters, and it was proving to be a very bad mistake to make. It was so cold that they had mostly spent their time inside, only going out for food and to visit some of Nana’s family.

One morning, Popo had awoken to a large storm outside. He and Nana weren’t concerned; they were used to being snowed in for a day or two. But then it happened the next day.

And the next.

And the next.

The two were snowed into their little rented-out cabin, when they should have left to head back home days ago. It was impossible to see what was going on outside, as the snow was so thick and highly-cramped up to their windows. They were lucky that Popo was insistent on buying so much food when they first arrived, since they now didn’t have to worry about running out of anything to eat.

However, that couldn’t be said for anything else. They had run out of firewood, meaning that they couldn’t light the cabin’s fireplace to warm themselves up. The two were quickly becoming bored of staying inside, having read all the books they bought and with the cabin’s tv unable to get any signal due to the storm. It was freezing cold inside, Popo swore he could feel himself getting sick with every moment he stood still, and the snowstorm, whilst it had slowed down a lot, was still raging outside & blocking them from leaving.

All the two could really do was wait out the storm.

Popo was resting on the couch, bundled up in all the blankets he could find, whilst Nana scoured the cabinets to see if there was anything for them to do. He was growing agitated with having nothing to do and was trying to go to sleep, but it was proving too cold for him to do so. Just as he almost managed to drift off, Nana tapped his shoulder, grinning.

“What?” He sat up, staring at her.

“Guess what I found.”

Popo gave her a confused look. She pulled out something behind her.

“Movies.”

Popo’s eyes grew wide. “Where on Earth did you find them!?”

“In one of the higher cabinets. I had to use a chair to reach ‘em. That’s why I couldn’t find them earlier.”

Popo looked at the movies. He didn’t recognise either of them; one looked to be a comedy movie, and the other was an older looking movie in the Haust village’s language, which Popo couldn’t understand for the life of him. But, it was better than nothing.

“Which one first?”

Popo tapped the comedy movie’s packaging. “This one.”

“Of course.” Nana placed the second movie on the side table, before going to the TV to start the movie. The TV was small and old, but it had been working perfectly before the storm hit. Popo just hoped that the cabin’s electricity wouldn’t cut out during the movie, as it had been flickering in and out throughout the storm.

She flicked on the TV, which opened up to the movie’s starting screen. Nana clicked play, before jumping next to Popo and taking half of his blankets to share. The two got ready to watch the movie, ready to see what it was all about.

\---

It wasn’t a bad movie. In fact, it was actually pretty good. But about halfway through, the disc suddenly stopped working, thanks to the multitude of scratches covering it. The two switched to the second movie which contained subtitles, much to Popo’s relief.

It was an old movie, something about fighting wars & surviving in the freezing Arctic; Popo hadn’t been paying much attention at the start. It was interesting though, enough for him to keep watching it. Nana had long since fallen asleep, resting on his shoulder as the movie played. She had been explaining everything about the movie before she had decided to fall asleep halfway through.

Popo was trying to follow along now, but the actors just spoke far too fast for him to read. He had noticed that about Haust; everyone spoke loud and fast, even when they weren’t speaking their own language. He could see where Nana had gotten her outspoken behaviour from.

A loud noise from the TV made Popo jump, affectively waking up Nana, who was not happy.

“Sorry Nana,” Popo apologised to his friend. “I got startled.”

“I can tell.” Nana yawned, stretching her arms before resting back on his shoulder. “What’s happening?”

Popo looked at the screen. “No idea.”

Nana looked at the TV for a moment, before shutting her eyes again. She mumbled something in her sleepy state, but Popo couldn’t hear her clearly. Popo himself could feel his eyes growing tired, but he pushed ahead to finish the movie. In an attempt to keep him awake, he started talking to Nana.

“Hey Nana,” Popo kept his friend awake as he asked her a question. “Have you ever watched this before?”

Nana frowned. “Once. I was really little though. Pretty much everyone here has seen it before.”

“Right.”

“Why were you asking?”

Popo shrugged. “Just curious, since you keep falling asleep. I thought you hated doing that.”

“Wow, you’re so judgemental,” She playfully nudged at his side, making him laugh. “But I’m just tired. It was too cold last night.”

Popo snickered at that. Nana had never enjoyed the cold. He could bring up a dozen memories where she had complained about how cold it was, even when it simply felt fine to himself.

The movie kept dragging on, and Popo’s interest began to wane again. He was growing tired as well, eyelids drooping as the black-and-white screen flickered with the movie. He tried to fight back, but quickly fell asleep against Nana, the TV still playing the old war movie.

\---

When Popo awoke, the power was out.

He yawned, getting up from the couch and heading towards the window. To his shock, the snow had been cleaned from all the windows, allowing him to see outside. The storm had drastically died down, meaning that they would probably be able to leave by tomorrow. The late afternoon sun was shining over the village as citizens came out of their homes, enjoying their freedom from the storm.

He made his way to the door, and attempted to open it. It opened fully, with no snow blocking it at all. Shutting the door, Popo rushed to the couch to wake up Nana, who was peacefully sleeping despite Popo waking up.

“Nana! Wake up!”

“Mmm, what?” She grumbled, slowly waking up.

“The storm’s over!”

That woke her up.

“Really?”

Popo pulled his friend up, dragging her outside into the snow. They spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the village, relieved that the horrible storm was finally over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Haust village is based on Norway; I didn't mention any phrases in the language since I dont speak it & dont wanna embarrass myself trying to use google translate skfksd


	20. Animals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to my friend @/flippynote on insta for helping me with this fic, hes a real one
> 
> These fics have now reached the point where it takes several minutes to load them all on google docs I hope yall are proud of me

They had been making their way back home when Nana saw it.

It had been a pretty awful time in the Haust village- a snowstorm had trapped them inside for almost a week, thanks to them visiting during the winter instead of the usual summer, and despite it being her home village, Nana had grown sick of it before Popo had. She was more than happy to head back home and take a much-needed break outside.

They were walking back home, talking about how disastrous the storm had been, when Nana saw something sticking out from under a tree. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was; it looked like a messy bundle of feathers peeking out from the snow. Without warning Popo, she rushed over to it to see what it was.

It was a baby condor, still with its baby feathers. It looked frail and weak, as if it had been sitting in the snow for some time, and one of its small wings looked oddly twisted. It crowed at her as she approached it- even its voice sounded weak.

Nana’s heart sank. She picked it up, making sure not to harm it any further.

Popo came up behind her to see what was wrong. “Nana, what did you- oh.” He noticed the freezing condor chick lying in Nana’s palm.

Nana turned to him. “Can we take it somewhere?”

Popo shook his head. “They won’t treat a wild condor. We’ll have to care for it ourselves.”

Nana frowned. “I don’t know how to.”

“My dad used to raise them when I was a kid. I still remember a couple of things from him.”

The two quickly set off to reach their home. Nana attempted to warm up the chick, brushing any small bits of snow & cupping her hands around its body. It took all her might not to run back, in fear of accidentally hurting the chick.

When they reached their home, Popo immediately lit the fireplace whilst Nana placed the bird on the table. Now that they were inside, Nana could get a better look at the bird. To her relief, the wing wasn’t broken; it seemed to have a variety of scratches, but aside from that was fine. She guessed that its wing had just been in a weird position. It was, however, alarmingly thin, which worried her.

She looked over back at Popo, who had just finished putting more wood into the fire. “What do they eat?”

“Insects and vegetables. I remember my dad used to feed them mealworms because they helped with protein or something.”

Nana had no idea where to get those. “And we get them how?”

“Sometimes they sell them in the markets so little kids can feed the wild birds. But they won’t come around for another week.”

Before Nana could answer back, Popo began digging around in his bag. “Luckily I bought a bunch of that kind of stuff back from Haust, because the markets haven’t been selling them for awhile. And I felt bad for our birds.”

Nana smiled. ‘Our birds’ were actually a family of white tern birds who visited them every winter, and Popo had been insistent on feeding them whenever he saw them. It was kind of charming how much he adored the wild birds.

Popo pulled out a tub triumphantly. “Found it!”

He came over to her and opened it. Nana could already see small worms moving throughout. Popo turned to her.

“We need tweezers and a small knife.”

Nana didn’t question her friend. She quickly ran off to grab what Popo said they needed. She got back almost as soon as she arrived, handing the items to Popo.

“Thanks Nana,” He placed the tub’s lid on the table, grabbed a worm & placed it on the lid. “I’ll show you how to do this.”

He sliced off the worm’s head, causing Nana to cringe slightly. Taking the tweezers, he grabbed the worm and gave it to the condor. The condor eagerly ate it, almost taking the tweezers with it as it ate.

“At least it’s eating.” Popo gave a sigh of relief.

“What about its wings?” Nana pointed out the numerous scratches on the baby bird. Popo prepared another worm whilst he talked.

“They don’t look too bad, but dad can tell better than I can. I’m surprised it didn’t break a wing or anything.”

“Same here.” Nana watched the bird chirping loudly, demanding more food. She prayed that they’d be able to keep it safe.

\---

The next few weeks passed by in a blur. The two continued to care for the baby condor, deciding to nurse it back to health. To their great relief, the condor was becoming healthier by the day, and had even lost its baby feathers during their care, its skin the orange and white hue that they knew so well.

Popo’s father had proven to be a great help to the two as they cared for the baby. Popo’s assumptions about its injuries had been proven right, as his father confirmed that the condor would fully recover from its injuries. He helped the two climbers set up a place for the condor to rest, and informed them on how exactly to care for the baby bird.

Nana was happy with the baby’s progress. It was larger now, able to eat on its own and fly without assistance. It had reached a point where Nana feared leaving the house, because there was no doubt that the condor would have gotten up into mischief whilst she was away. Once, she and Popo had arrived home to find the cheeky thing sitting on top of a cabinet, after managing to break out of its cage.

They decided that it was time to set the condor free.

Nana wasn’t ready. As much as she had tried not to, she had grown attached to the baby condor. She was worried about it; she didn’t even know if it could survive without her and Popo caring for it.

Popo had been reassuring her that it was fine. And besides, a part of her knew that they couldn’t keep it forever; adult condors were massive things, and keeping one was just impossible. They would have to release it at some point, and it was better now than before it wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild at all.

They set up the condor’s cage near where they found it. It was almost too large for it now- luckily Popo’s father had given them one that was relatively big in the first place. Placing it in the snow, Popo opened the cage door, allowing the condor to step out into the wild.

Nana was getting tearful already. She sniffed & wiped away a tear threatening to come down.

“Nana, are you crying?”

“Maybe.”

Popo snorted. “And you call me a sap.”

“Whatever.” Nana playfully elbowed Popo. She didn’t take her eyes off the condor, which had since exited the cage onto the snow. Popo’s attention turned to it too, as he noticed it in the snow.

It stretched its healed wings, and turned to look at the area. Catching the two climbers noticing it, it chirped at them, flapping its wings in their direction. Nana could feel herself beginning to cry again, and she wiped at her face to stop it.

The condor turned away, and in one sweeping motion it took to the sky, flying towards the mountains. Nana watched until it flew out of sight. It flew behind the mountains, hopefully to a cave or safe spot for it to stay.

Popo rested his hand on her shoulder. “Ready to head back yet?”

Nana looked back at the mountains before nodding. “You think it’ll be safe out there?”

“Nana, it’ll be fine. Condors aren’t like topis, they can easily fend for themselves.”

Nana sighed. She smiled and grabbed the large cage.

“Well we better give this back to your dad then. Unless…”

“Nana, we’re not doing this again. Dad can take care of them next time.”

“Oh, so there _will_ be a next time then?”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

The two playfully bickered the entire way back, unaware of the small condor watching over them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do condors have feathers??? Are they scaly???? Is it just skin???? We will never know
> 
> Also damn I never realised how much I make them cry,,,,,, crybaby bastards


	21. Song Fic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only reason I didn't do this sooner is that I spent 2 weeks debating on how I was gonna set this up
> 
> The song I used is called Spirit In the Sky by Keiino!! It's an absolutely amazing song, Ill leave the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud7mYAI4Vtk
> 
> I chose not to add the vocalizing parts, mostly bc they weren't on the official lyrics on the Eurovision website & it'd add an extra part and extend this longer than I wanted it.

\---  
_Can't you stay,_  
_Stay with me into the night_  
_Stay,_  
_I need you close_  
_You can go back when the sun rise again_  
_Just stay, tonight, just stay_

\---  
The village was quiet that night. Popo’s footsteps echoed as he walked through the town, passing by blackened-out houses & closed-up shops. Avoiding any light coming from the occasional building, he made his way to the outside of town, where the forest began, and made his way into the dark.

It was the only forest found on these icy plains; it was massive, reaching out to some of the other villages. Despite that, most wouldn’t dare to enter the dark forest. Not only was it massive & nearly impossible to get out of, but it was also home to a dreaded creature- the elves. Popo could remember stories about them from his childhood, described as beautiful creatures capable of harming anyone that came across them.

Popo never believed those stories. He thought they were absurd and highly exaggerated; how could something have the conscious to kill for the sake of killing? But he grew curious of them, and thus had begun exploring the forest since he was a kid, hoping to come across one and prove all the adult’s stories wrong.

It was how he stumbled upon her.

\---  
_Have you seen my spirit,_  
_Lost in the night_  
_The violent nightshade,_  
_They took away my light_  
_They call us nothing,_  
_My name is nothing_  
_Come see me,_  
_Please see me_  
_Cause I've been running with the demons now,_  
_They all see my fear_  
_They say there's nothing,_  
_Nothing here_

\---  
_He was very young when they first met, maybe about 7 or 8. He had strayed away from his parents and ended up in the forest, completely lost. He could still remember how fearful he felt being stuck there; despite not believing the myths, the thought of still being stuck in the middle of a dark forest was terrifying for any child._

_Popo had been sitting there, crying for his parents, when he saw her._

_She didn’t look like how all the adults described elves. She was probably not much older than he was, and was incredibly ordinary looking- Brown hair, brown eyes & a fairly tan complexion for someone who lived in the mountains. However, she emitted an aura of importance, as if she knew something that he didn’t, and walked as if she knew the forest’s layout off by heart. It was enough to stop him from crying & instead to focus on her._

_She didn’t speak. She didn’t have to- all she did was point behind him. A path seemed to glow, ready for him to walk down. It amazed him, seeing the grass and flowers illuminate in front of him. He began to follow it, watching the flowers bloom brightly as soon as he approached them._

_He quickly recognised this route as the one he had strayed from. The girl, whoever she was, was guiding him back out._

_Popo silently thanked her as he continued to follow the path back to his parents, who promised to never let him out of their sight again._

\---  
_I see your spirit in the sky_  
_When northern lights are dancing_  
_He-lo e loi-la_  
\---

Nighttime was the only time they could visit. Not only because they wouldn’t be sighted, but because it was the only time when Nana was active. Popo hated it, since it left him constantly tired after their visits, but he was willing to put up with it in order to see his friend. 

He lit his lantern, which he had been hiding in his bag, and held in front of him. A few rabbits scurried from the light, fearful of Popo’s presence. He walked forward, looking for the usual path. The two usually strayed away from the main path, instead going off towards one that took them to what Popo called the ‘Elves’s Getaway’- an area full of animals, plant life & what Popo only assumed was magic.

Popo was on alert tonight. This time of year was when the other elves were the most active, ready to catch any human who happened to wander into the forest. He was lucky to gain an exception, thanks to his friendship with Nana, but there was always a chance that he could accidentally offend them and end up dying of some disease or being cursed.

In fact, he had been trying to put off coming out into the open, just in case one of the caught him.

“Took you long enough.”

Popo turned sharply to see her leaning against a nearby tree, grinning. Compared to the other elves he had seen, she was comically small, being slightly shorter than the already-short Popo. In fact, the only elvish thing about her was her pointed ears. Despite that, her aura of importance was the same as the others, and it still intimidated Popo slightly.

“I, uh, got lost.” He didn’t want to admit his real reason for being so late.

“You’re a horrible liar Popo,” Nana stuck out her tongue. “But you don’t need to be worried about the others. They’re not gonna bite.”

He didn’t even ask how she knew. At this point, it was better not to question it. “Yeah, but there’s always a chance.”

Nana rolled her eyes. “They’re not _that_ bad. Anyways, ready to head off?”

Popo nodded, and the two set ahead, ready to stray off the path.

\---  
_I hear you calling me at night_  
_Whenever wind is blowing_  
_He-lo e loi-la_  
_I can see your spirit in the sky_  
_When northern lights are dancing_  
_He-lo e loi-la_  
_Čajet dan čuovgga_  
\---

_The more he visited, the more he learnt about her._

_For one, she wasn’t an elf- at least not fully. Her father had come from one of the nearby villages, whilst her mother was a high-ranking elf from the forest. It was why she looked so plain- she had none of that elven beauty like her mother did. She still had the powers though, ones just as powerful as a full-blood._

_Secondly, she was incredibly friendly and not at all like other elves. She didn’t possess any of that usual elf snobbiness or elegancy; it was as if she was just an ordinary village kid. It was incredibly jarring to Popo, seeing Nana compared to the usual descriptions of elves that he had heard. It was even more jarring seeing her with the other elves, where she stood out like a sore thumb._

_And finally… she was lonely. Popo had figured that one out by himself. Even as a kid, he thought it was strange that Nana never seemed to talk to or mention anyone else outside of her mother. As he got older, he learnt that she was the only elven child in the entire forest, leaving her bored and lonely without anyone to speak to._

_Popo made every effort to try and visit her. He didn’t want her to feel lonely, even if he was gone for just a day. Eventually they decided on a plan- to meet up once a week, in the dead of night, where nobody could see them._

_And for a very long time, Popo didn’t miss one meeting._

\---  
_I'll follow you until the daylight_  
_Shy us away_  
\---

Popo still found it difficult to keep up with Nana. Even after all these years, he still found himself lagging behind her, as she gracefully avoided every tree root and dent in the ground. It was frustrating to say the least, especially since Nana enjoyed laughing whenever Popo fell over something that she had easily missed.

And even worse, she could do all this _without light._

To Popo’s surprise, Nana drifted off in a different direction than usual. He frowned, running to catch up with her.

“Where are we going?”

“Another hidden place,” Nana had a mischievous grin on her face. “We used to go to it as kids.”

“Another one?” Popo scoured his mind to remember it, but couldn’t think. “I don’t remember you ever even mentioning a second place.”

“Well we only went there, like, twice,” She was looking out ahead. “But everyone took over our spot for some ceremony so we can’t go there.”

That surprised Popo. “You skipped a ceremony for me?”

“Well I don’t go to them,” Nana shrugged. “I don’t really see a point since they don’t let me in them.”

“Oh.”

“I wouldn’t dwell on it if I were you. They probably just get together to curse men or something.”

Popo snorted. “Lemme guess, they’re gonna curse me for being within 5 feet of poor, precious you.”

“Maybe.”

Popo pushed her from behind, but she moved out of the way, causing him to stumble and almost fall over. She laughed and ran off, causing Popo to chase after her in the dark.

\---  
_I need a hero_  
_I need my light_  
_Her shining lightwaves_  
_Will break away the night_  
_I call it freedom_  
_Our name is freedom_  
_Come find me_  
_Please find me_  
_Cause I am dancing with the fairies now_  
_They all sing our name_  
_I got my light here_  
_Shining here_  
\---

_He missed a visit once._

_It was his first climb by himself. Nowadays, he could complete a climb pretty quickly, but back then he was incredibly slow and struggled to get far in a day. He had promised that he’d be back within a week, an easy time lapse for a small mountain even when he was first starting out._

_Unfortunately, that was not the case. While preparing to scale down the mountain, he was attacked by a dreaded polar bear, leaving him injured and struggling to contain the wound. It took him an extra week to come back down, with his wound only getting worse the entire time._

_The whole time, he feared what would happen when he returned. Despite her status as a hafling, the forest’s elves were heavily protective over Nana- they would probably do horrible things to him for upsetting her feelings. He feared that they had already done something to him, cursing him with illness, bad luck or, worse, impending death._

_So as soon as he got down in the night, his first thought wasn’t to seek immediate medical attention for his infected wound. It was to apologise to Nana._

_He had immediately rushed to the forest, calling out Nana’s name in an attempt to find her. He didn’t care about the possibility of being ambushed by a bunch of elves attempting to try and kill him for forgetting about her. He wanted to apologize for something that wasn’t even his fault._

_He called out to her, but got no answer._

\---  
_I hear you calling me at night_  
_Whenever wind is blowing_  
_He-lo e loi-la_  
_I can see your spirit in the sky_  
_When northern lights are dancing_  
_He-lo e loi-la_  
_Čajet dan čuovgga_  
\---

Once Popo finally caught up to her, he realised where he was.

He recognised the place, but only faintly. It was a small clean clearing, decorated with large trees and rocks. The flora seemed to glow, lighting up the area with faint blue light. Small floating things were buzzing around Popo’s head; he couldn’t tell if they were just small bugs or tiny fairies.

Nana crashed onto the grass, landing with a faint thud. Popo walked over to her, leaning over and looking into her dark eyes.

“Recognise the place now?”

“Yep,” Popo sat next to her. “We came here once or twice when we first met.”

“You watch me fall off that tree there,” Nana pointed at an irregularly slanted tree. “You cried until you realised I was fine.”

“Yeah, because most people would break their legs falling from that.” Popo’s face went red from embarrassment. He remembered the event clearly now.

Nana giggled. Her attention was suddenly drawn to the sky.

“Hey Popo, what are those?”

Popo looked up and saw faint colours in the sky. He recognised them instantly.

“They’re the Northern Lights. They come every year. We don’t get to see them often in the village though,” He turned to look at her. “You’ve never seen them before?”

“Rarely. They’re never this bright though. It’s beautiful.”

Popo chose not to point out that they were actually more vibrant a few villages across. They laid side-by-side, watching the faint lights decorate the blackened sky. He smiled, listening as Nana rambled about how she used to watch them when she was a child.

He was happy.

\--  
_I hear you calling me at night_  
_Whenever wind is blowing_  
_He-lo e loi-la_  
_I can see your spirit in the sky_  
_When northern lights are dancing_  
_He-lo e loi-la_  
_Čajet dan čuovgga_  
\--

_Somebody eventually came._

_Popo didn’t know who it was at first. He was too worn-out, too tired to see who or what had seen him. He just waited, hoping that whoever it was would leave him alone, or at least in once piece._

_“Popo?”_

_It was Nana._

_He looked up to see her standing in front of him. Her face was a mix of shock and worry. The way she looked, so unlike herself, caused Popo’s heart to break in two._

_He quickly realised that he was starting to cry._

_Nana wasn’t paying attention to that. She knelt down, and took Popo’s injured arm into her hands. It was heavily scratched up, barely covered by a makeshift bandage and was beginning to look infected. She looked up at him._

_“What happened?”_

_Popo wiped away his tears with his free hand. “Polar bear.”_

_Nana shook her head. Her hands covered the bloodied scratches, and Popo went to look to see what she was doing._

_“Don’t,” Her voice was stern. “It’ll blind you.”_

_Popo was confused, but turned away anyways. He soon realised why she warning him- out of the corner of his eyes, he could see bring light emitting from Nana’s hands. He resisted the urge to ask what she was doing, and simply waited to find out what was going on._

_“You can turn back now.”_

_Popo looked at his arm. To his shock, the wound was gone. He moved his arm around; no pain came from it. He stared at her, dumbfounded._

_“It’s simple healing,” She brushed it off quickly, jumping back to their first conversation. “Is that why you didn’t show up?”_

_Popo looked away in embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”_

_Nana shook her head. “Don’t be. You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”_

_She pulled him into a deep hug. He hugged her back, resting on her shoulder as he began to cry harder. He listened to her whispering comforting words as they sat in the dirt of the forest, refusing to let go._

_At least he was here now._

\---  
_I can see your spirit in the sky_  
_When northern lights are dancing_  
_He-lo e loi-la_  
_Čajet dan čuovgga_  
\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: i want to write happy, feel good fics  
Also me: popo gets mauled by a fucking polar bear and almost dies
> 
> Also yea their village is surrounded by mountains and a forest. Probably not realistic but who cares
> 
> For anyone wondering, the last lines in the verses translate to "Show me the light" in the Sami language


	22. Horror Movies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to hastily rewrite this ending bc I was unsatisfied hhh

It was cold, it was late, it was storming outside, and so what better way to spend the late evening watching horror movies with your friends?

The melee representatives were lounging in the mansion’s massive tv room, cuddled up in blankets and arguing over what to watch. Despite the room having no windows, they could all hear the storm blazing outside, which had been going on all day. Bowser had suggested they all watch horror movies to pass the time; only the second tournament participants had taken up the offer, mostly due to the fact that they all didn’t have any battles the next day.

Nana was listening as Bowser and Mewtwo argued over whether to watch an older horror or one of the new ones that had just come out. She couldn’t care less about which one to watch; she loved horror movies either way. Despite the fact that she got scared easily when watching them, she still had a weird love for those kinds of movies. She was excited to hear what they were going to watch.

The same couldn’t be said for Popo, who was already turning pale.

Nana sat down next to Popo on one of the many couches and nudged him, giving her friend a cheeky grin. “Ready for the movie, Popo?”

“Are we seriously watching a horror movie? _Tonight?_” Popo shook his head in disbelief and worry.

“‘Course we are. It’s a perfect night to watch one,” She raised her eyebrows. “Don’t tell me you’re scared, Popo.”

“Whatever,” He rolled his eyes. “I’m not scared. It’s just a movie after all.”

The last part seemed more like reassurance for himself. He had never been a fan of horror movies; Nana knew that first-hand. She felt guilty for teasing him about it. She began to assure him, hoping that it would at least comfort him somehow.

“You’re exactly right. It’s just a movie,” She watched as Samus split up a now-physical fight between Bowser and Mewtwo. “Besides, we’re watching it with Peach. _Peach._ She can barely handle a scary part in a kids movie, let alone a horror movie. You’ll look fine compared to her.”

Popo nodded, despite the fact that he looked visibly nervous.

“Alright, we got a movie now,” Samus took the movie from Bowser’s hands- the new one, with a terrifying clown on the front- and inserted the disc into the dvd player.

Nana & Popo settled down in their seats, watching their fellow fighters prepare for the movie. Roy pulled out snacks that he and Marth had bought earlier that day, Peach handed out extra blankets and Ness, Zelda & Link arrived back with enough popcorn for everyone. Bowser turned on the gigantic TV, and the melee representatives sat down, ready to be scared out of their minds.

\---

The movie had been going for an hour now & Nana absolutely hated it.

The newer one that was on was one that Nana had yet to see. It had been terrifying from the start, causing Nana to hide under her blankets & watch the movie between her fingers. She wasn’t the only one feeling like this though. Peach had been hiding behind Mario the entire time, terrified out of her mind, and Mr Game and Watch had been emitting terrified bell rings whenever a jumpscare showed up on screen, much to the annoyance of Bowser.

To Nana’s surprise, she was more terrified than Popo was. He was pretty scared of the movie as well, having been hiding with Nana under the blankets, but he was nowhere near as horrified or disturbed as Nana was. She chalked it up to her coulrophobia, considering the main villain was a massive demonic clown.

The two hadn’t even touched any of their snacks yet. They were too terrified to look away from the screen.

For the moment, the movie was at a standstill, causing all the fighters to remain tense. Nana and Popo sat there in suspense, hiding under their blankets. They heard Roy whisper something to Marth, before being promptly shushed by Falco. The rest of the fighters remained quiet as well, anticipating a shock jumpscare or something just as frightening.

“I can’t look any longer.” Popo promptly whispered before burying his face into the blankets. Nana continued watching; the horror junkie in her was too powerful to look away, no matter how much fear she felt. 

As expected, something jumped from the screen. Nana jumped with it, letting out a small noise before covering her eyes. Peach screamed at the screen, and a blast of ringing noises filled the room thanks to Mr Game and Watch. Nana heard Fox yell out in both shock and disappointment, the scare causing him to spill his popcorn all over the floor.

“And you teased me for being too scared.”

Nana stuck her tongue out at Popo, who was laughing despite the horror happening on screen. Despite the visuals having toned down now, Nana still peeked at it through her fingers, fearing that the dreaded clown would come up on screen again.

As the movie went on, the adrenaline in her went down as her more logical thoughts went up. She wanted to hide and turn of the movie, but she continued watching for the sake of it. She saw some of the other fighters had left or weren’t paying attention; Ness had managed to sneak out sometime during the movie & Ganondorf had fallen asleep next to Bowser.

Another jumpscare showed up. Nana shut her eyes, refusing to open them until the screaming in the movie stopped.

Someone tapped her shoulder, causing her to jump. She quickly realised that it was just Popo. “What?”

“You look really pale.”

Nana scoffed. “It’s nothing.”

“You sure?”

Nana nodded, turning back to watch the movie. She was sure that she would be fine- it was just a movie after all.

\---

Nana didn’t sleep much that night.

She tossed and turned in bed, unable to get the creepy image of that clown out of her head. Everytime she closed her eyes, she couldn’t help but open them again, rendering her unable to go to sleep. She just laid in bed, waiting for the sun to rise again.

“You’re still awake.”

Nana jumped at Popo’s voice. “I can’t sleep.”

“Scared that the clown’s gonna come after you?” Popo grinned playfully, though Nana felt anything but playful.

“Shut up!” She buried her head into her pillow, hoping to block out Popo’s voice.

A few moments later, she heard shifting from Popo’s side of the room. Nana turned her head to the side to see Popo kneeling next to her bed. He looked apologetic.

“I’m sorry Nana. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“It’s fine.” Nana yawned, and could feel herself getting tired. With Popo next to her, she could actually feel herself falling asleep without any problems.

Slowly she managed to drift off, right before the sun rose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Nana's defense clowns are terrifying I hate those bastards


	23. Flowers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasnt gonna do this prompt at first but I gave in,,,,

Nana loved flowers.

It didn’t matter what kind of flower it was- forget-me-nots, lilies, roses, daisies. Nana cherished them all, and constantly decorated her and Popo’s room in the mansion with flowers of all sorts. Whenever the duo went out, Nana would stop them whenever she spotted a flower, just so she could admire it.

Popo didn’t blame her. The village back home was barren, with the only flowers being found in the cold forest that surrounded them- and even then they were hard to find thanks to how dark it was in there. Meanwhile, Nana’s home village was almost always decorated with flora, even during the cold winter months. He guessed that she missed Haust’s flowers & thus jumped at the chance to see more, even if it was just a tiny flower on the side of the street.

It was why he was running in the pouring rain down the street, desperately looking around the the local florist.

For the past week, Popo had been as sick as a dog; in fact, a lot of the fighters had come down with illness, thanks to the freezing storms that had been infesting the area lately. He had been stuck in bed with the dreaded flu, and Nana had been kind enough to nurse him back to health.

Unfortunately, he had gotten her sick too. He felt awful, even though it was something completely out of his control. He felt that the least he could do was try and cheer her up. So, whilst she tried to sleep off her sickness, Popo had snuck out of the mansion & fled towards the local town.

Most of the shops were still open despite the storm. Popo could see Pacman and Mr Game and Watch leaving a nearby cafe, coffee cups in hand and chattering in a mess of beeps and noises. Greninja and Squirtle were playing on the nearby grass as one of the Pokemon trainers watched from under an umbrella. Despite those few, most of the fighters were hiding inside the mansion, having refused to go out into the cold.

Popo was just hoping that the flower shop was still open.

He turned down the street, leaving the food district and heading into what he called the miscellaneous district. There were a variety of shops down here- a game shop, a furniture shop, a tattoo shop, and, of course, the flower shop. Unlike the food district, most of the shops down here had closed early due to the storm. Popo passed shop after shop that was closed, and his optimism began to wane.

He could see a light down the end of the street- the flower shop. He sprinted ahead, passing by the dimmed-out buildings. He reached the end of the street, and to his relief, the shop was open.

Now that he didn’t have to worry about the flower shop, he realised just how drenched he had gotten.

He stood outside the shop, not wanting to go inside and turn the floor into a miniature pool. He began to shiver as the cold finally started to hit him. He shifted in his spot, attempting to warm himself up.

Luckily the woman working there noticed him standing outside, and approached him. “Can I help you?”

“Flowers, please,” He dug around in his parka pocket and pulled out a few bills. “Any kind.”

The woman nodded, and rushed off to grab him some flowers. The storm was beginning to intensify, and Popo began to worry that the flowers wouldn’t make it back in one piece.

“You’re one of the fighters, aren’t you?”

Popo was surprised that the woman recognised him. He nodded. “How did you know?”

“I’ve seen you with a few of the last tournaument’s fighters before,” She plucked a few flowers from different bunches, forming a varied bouquet. “I just assumed that you were a fighter like them.”

“I am. I just missed the last one. Got kicked out for ‘illegal teaming’.”

“I heard about that,” The woman laughed as she went to the counter; Popo had to step slightly inside in order to hear her. “It was you and that girl who got kicked, right?”

“That’s Nana. She’s my best friend. We fight as a team together.”

“Ah, so that’s who these are for then?”

Popo nodded. The woman finished wrapping up the flowers, and grabbed something from behind the counter before walking over to Popo. She gave him the flowers & an umbrella.

“Take it. You’re gonna need it.”

Popo thanked her, before running back out into the storm.

\---

He was thankful that the woman had given him the umbrella.

The rain increased dramatically as Popo made his way back. Now there was almost nobody on the streets, as people had fled back to the mansion to shield themselves from the rain. Popo couldn’t even imagine how he would have been able to get back without the umbrella, especially with the delicate flowers in-hand.

The flowers were absolutely beautiful. Popo could only recognise two types (light pink roses & daisies) but either way, they were still gorgeous. He had no doubt that Nana would love them more than he did- he couldn’t wait to see her face when he got back.

He finally reached the mansion, but not without any trouble. He was still drenched head-to-toe, water was seeping into his boots and he was getting irritated from just how cold he was. He put off all this however, rushing towards the bedrooms in an attempt to get to Nana. He was hoping that she would still be asleep when he arrived, so that he could surprise her.

When he opened their door however, Nana was wide awake, reading a book. When she noticed him, dripping wet and looking incredibly cold, she went still. She called out to him, but Popo could barely hear what she said due to her hoarse voice.

“Sorry Nana, I had to go out for something,” He pulled out the flowers from behind him, grinning. “Surprise!”

Nana’s face turned from confusion to joy. She smiled, motioning for Popo to come closer. She took the flowers from him, holding them close and smiling widely.

“Thank you.” Her voice was so hoarse that Popo could barely hear it.

“Anytime,” Popo placed a hand over Nana’s forehead. It still felt hot. “You feeling any better?”

“A little,” Nana frowned. “What happened to you?”

“Just the storm. It’s really bad out there.”

“Well go warm yourself up,” She pushed him away. “You’re gonna get sick again.”

“Whatever.” Popo placed his cold hand on her back of her neck, causing Nana to squeal and hit him with her book. Grabbing a pair of clothes, he ran off towards the bathroom, hoping to get there before he ended up freezing to death from his cold clothes.

He smiled. At least the surprise worked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who is the mysterious woman??? Is she one of the spirits??? Is she a random generic person??? We will never know


	24. Illness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a direct prequel to the last one, I didnt mean to write it like that it just kinda happened
> 
> Tbh this was a big excuse to make Nana cook in one of these fics again

Illness was plaguing the entire Smash mansion. One couldn’t walk five feet without hearing hacking and coughing coming from a nearby room. Flu season was hitting hard this year, and most fighters could only pray that they didn’t catch it. Some, such as the Inklings, resorted to containing themselves in their rooms, in fear of catching the illness too.

Luckily, Nana hadn’t caught it yet. Thanks to growing up surrounded by the cold, she rarely ever caught the flu, even from others. The last time she had caught it was back in the last tournament she went to, when she had fallen ill after getting used to the warm weather.

Unfortunately, not everyone was as lucky as Nana.

She awoke one morning, ready to start the day, when she heard sniffling coming from across the room. She turned to look at where Popo slept, only to find him bundled under blankets, face flushed red, and shivering.

_Oh no._

“Popo?” She got up from her bed, and approached Popo. “You feeling alright?”

“I’m sick.” His voice sounded stuffy. As if to add to the effect, he started coughing loudly.

Nana frowned. “That’s not good.”

“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” Popo scowled for a moment, before realising what he said. “Sorry.”

Nana ignored him. “Stay here. I’ll go get you some soup and stuff. I’ll be back soon.”

Popo closed his eyes. “Thanks Nana.”

Nana quickly grabbed her clothes and rushed out of the room, heading towards the shared bathrooms to get changed. She didn’t know how she was going to deal with this; her and Popo rarely got sick, and even if they did, they would usually get sick together. She didn’t want to ask anyone either; Peach had come down sick as well & Dr Mario already had his hands full caring for the other fighters.

She was going to have to go at it alone.

After getting changed, her first decision was to head towards the kitchen. She may not have had experience with caring for someone with the flu, but she wasn’t stupid. Nana had watched Peach care for her own sick Toads hundreds of times before, and Nana herself could remember things from when her mother cared for her as a child. And if Nana knew anything, it was that food could help any illness, especially when it came to Popo.

Thanks to the majority of the kitchen-hoarders being ill, the kitchen was people-free when Nana arrived. She set straight to work, pulling out vegetables, garlic & the leftover chicken from last night’s dinner, amongst other ingredients. She didn’t even need a recipe to look at; Nana knew how to make chicken soup off by heart, and barely even needed to glance at the recipe anymore.

She threw the cut-up vegetables in a pot, and waited for them to fry. Behind her, someone walked into the kitchen, and stopped upon seeing Nana.

“Oh, Nana!” Isabelle’s soft voice caused Nana to turn around. “What are you doing in here? And where’s Popo?”

“He’s sick,” She turned back to the soup, and began to pour the chicken broth in. “So I’m making him some soup.”

Isabelle walked over to Nana, peeking to see what she was making. Despite Isabelle’s small size, she was almost the same height as Nana. Isabelle sniffed the air, and smiled.

“It smells absolutely wonderful!” Isabelle’s tail began to wag, with amused Nana. “I didn’t know you could cook this well!”

“Ever wondered why Popo’s always talking crap about the cooking here?” Nana stirred the pot around, hoping to bring it to a boil. “It’s ‘cause he hates everyone’s cooking but mine. He reckons I’m that good.”

Isabelle laughed. “That’s sweet of him to think.”

Nana smiled, focusing on cooking the soup. It was beginning to boil now, so she covered it and let it simmer.

“That’s a lotta soup.” Isabelle pointed out.

Nana frowned. She was right- it was enough for 3 extra people. She turned to Isabelle. “Who else is sick right now?”

“Oh, um, I know Princess Rosalina is. And Fox. I think Shulk isn’t doing so well either. Why’s that?”

“We can give the excess stuff to them then,” Nana began to separate the leftover chicken. “As much as he likes eating I doubt Popo will like having the same thing four days in a row.”

Isabelle nodded. “So what should I do then?”

Nana frowned again. She was already pretty prepared to finish off the cooking. All she could really do was send Isabelle off to do a random task.

She turned to Isabelle. “Well it feels kinda rude to only let a few people have soup. How many are sick again?”

“Well there’s only about 10 or 11 of us that are really bad. Most of us just have a small cold now.”

Nana nodded. “Do you know how to make lemon tea?”

“Yep! My mum used to make it for me and my brother when we were sick.”

“Can you whip up a few cups of that for everyone else?”

“Of course!”

The two girls set off at it, preparing home remedies for the rest of the sick fighters. By the time Nana was done cooking, Isabelle had finished delivering mugs of hot lemon tea to some of the sick fighters. They took the four bowls of soup and headed off to find the remaining sick fighters, hoping to at least ease them of their sickness.

\---

The fighters were grateful for Nana and Isabelle’s hospitality. As they visited the fighters, they thanked them for their help, and gulped down the soup faster than Nana thought possible. She felt giddy and glad knowing that she was helping others with her cooking, especially since she had felt that she had gotten a bit rusty with her cooking over the past few weeks.

Isabelle stayed back to clean up the kitchen, so Nana headed back to her and Popo’s room. She had grabbed a wet rag before she and Isabelle had left the kitchen, hoping that it’d bring down Popo’s temperature. She had also managed to grab a few flu pills, which happened to be the last ones remaining.

Upon reaching her room, she lightly tapped on the door, expecting Popo to have fallen asleep. She opened it and, to her surprise, he was awake, though he still looked very tired. When he saw her, he sat up, now in full alert. Despite how sick he looked, he managed to smile.

“It took longer than I thought,” She closed the door and headed over to him. “Me and Isabelle were giving out soup and stuff to the other fighters as well.”

“It’s fine.” Somehow, his voice managed to sound worse than before. He took the soup from her and began to eat. His smile grew wider as he ate, much to Nana’s amusement.

“It’s so _good_.” Popo mumbled through eating. Nana smiled at him as she placed the cold, wet rag over his head.

“Thanks, Popo.”

He mumbled something else, but Nana couldn’t make out what he was saying. By the time he was finished, he was looking a bit better; he didn’t seem nearly as weak as he did before.

Nana took his bowl back to the kitchen, grabbing a water bottle whilst she was there. She rushed back out, quickly making her way to the room. However, when she arrived back, she noticed that Popo had fallen fast asleep. Nana simply sighed, and went back to her own bed, keeping an ear out in case Popo woke up.

Hopefully she would help him get better soon.

\----

A week later, Nana awoke to the flu.

At least Popo had woken up feeling well and happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next one might be a bit all over the place bc its my own AU that I actually take seriously rip
> 
> Im also currently studying for exams so fics might end up sounding a bit rushed or will be smaller,,, I apologise for this, Ill try to keep them good-quality


	25. Ice Queen AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The AU is pretty simple, basically Nana is the Ice Queen who lives on a mountain in an ice castle & Popo's just a guy who happened to find it. The Ice Queen is said to be a very dangerous woman, but Popo thinks that's bullshit and sets off to prove that the rumours are false. And, well, he does.
> 
> I wrote this all last night, came back to it and realised I had to rewrite it all out bc it was so AWFULLY STRUCTURED. It ended up like 100 times longer than I intended bc of it. All the parts in italics are from the original draft, so it might sound off in some places.

\---  
_Up in the mountains, there lives the snow queen. A powerful, beautiful woman, who covers our lands with ice and snow in the winter, and rids of it in the summer. She is said to live on the tallest mountain, in a castle of ice, ruling over a village that we cannot see._

_She is dangerous, and unwilling to speak to any one of us. Those who have gone to find her have never come back. She has the power to destroy entire villages, and will decimate anyone that comes near._

_For your own safety, never climb the tallest mountain, no matter how tempting it may be._  
\---

Popo awoke to one of the servants fussing over him.

“Popo! The queen requires your presence immediately!”

“Five more minutes.” He groaned, throwing a pillow over his head and turning away from the servant. In response, the servant tore off Popo’s blankets, exposing him to the hefty cold of the castle and waking him up instantly.

“Alright, alright, I’m up!” He groaned, shivering in his pyjamas. The servant - Popo recognised him as Roy - seemed satisfied now that Popo was awake. “Where is she anyways?”

“Eating breakfast. She’s been waiting for you for awhile now.”

_How lovely._ He still wasn’t used to the Ice Queen’s awful early morning routine. The servant left, leaving Popo to get ready by himself in his room.

He had been staying at the castle for almost a week now. He hadn’t meant to spend that long there (In fact, he was supposed to be back at home a few days ago), but he couldn’t help himself. He was staying in a castle that was thought of as legend back at home, and conversing with someone who he had been told his whole life was an awful and dangerous person.

The Ice Queen.

That wasn’t her actual name- she had to constantly remind Popo at first to call her by her actual name, Nana. She wasn’t as mean as all those legends said she was either; as it turned out, the idea of a dangerous and cruel Ice Queen had stemmed from her own ancestors, who had once terrorised the lands surrounding the mountains. In fact, she was a pretty friendly and outgoing woman, though Popo suspected that she was still suspicious of his intents in staying for so long.

Walking down the halls of the ice castle, he looked around to try and find the dining room. The castle was massive, and Popo constantly found himself getting lost in its halls. He had to constantly ask its staff where everything was, and he was beginning to think that he was annoying the staff with his constant questions.

Today though, he managed to find the dining room quickly. Opening its ice door, he was confronted with a meal already set out on the table, much to his delight, and the Ice Queen herself sitting across from it. Unlike the dining hall, the dining room’s table was incredibly small, and he had overheard from some of the servants that she had rarely used it until his arrival.

“Finally, you’re awake!” Nana grinned from her spot. “I was worried that your food would start going cold from how long you were taking.”

“I overslept a bit.” Popo sheepishly grinned, sitting down. He began to dig into his breakfast; he was still surprised how hot the food could remain in a castle of ice.

“Well it’s good that you’re up now, because I want us to head out today.”

Popo stopped eating. “What?”

“There’s a festival happening in the village today,” Nana smiled. “I was hoping we could both head down for it.”

Popo hadn’t visited the village yet. He had heard about it from legend- the Fryse village, only accessible from the Ice Queen’s castle. He had wanted to visit it, but hadn’t gotten around to asking her yet.

“Well I don’t mind. I wanted to see it at some point anyways.”

“Great!” She clasped her hands, smiling. “We’ll leave as soon as you’re done!”

Popo nodded. He suddenly thought of a question to ask.

“How are we going to get down to it?”

Nana’s eyes listened with mischief and glee.

“With _ice._”

\---  
_When Popo had awoken in the castle, he was encased in ice._

_The majority of his body, including his forearms & hands, had been frozen. He tried to move, but he was stuck tight. His eyes glanced around the room, but he couldn’t tell where he was. The entire room was dark, and he could barely see. Fear began to rise up in him- he was beginning to think that the legends of a deadly ice queen really were true._

_Popo turned his head to find his mallet, also completely frozen. His stomach plummeted. This wasn’t good._

_Someone moved nearby. Popo’s heart stopped, listening to whoever was approaching. He wanted to call out to them, and ask why they had bought him down here, but he was too fearful to do anything._

_A shot of ice came from the dark, forming into a spike of ice aimed at Popo’s throat._

_“Who are you?”_

_Popo was too focused on the deadly ice spike directly in front of his throat to answer the question. He found his voice eventually. “Popo. From the Kori village.”_

_The spike got closer; it was lightly touching his throat now. The voice that came from the shadows sent chills down his spine._

_“What do you want with me?”_

\---

Popo had never imagined how wonderful the village could look.

Festival goers were huddled in the streets, crowding around stands and participating in different activities. A group of children played near the fountain, skipping stones against the cobble ground. Someone was setting up an art station in the square, preparing to allow the public to paint against the square’s ground. Paper snowflakes hung on lanterns and strings around the streets, some decorated with children’s drawings.

Popo couldn’t remember the last time his village had a festival like this. He adored festivals; being able to stand in the streets and enjoy shopping at stands was a feeling that could never be replaced.

“And this is on all day?”

“Yep!” Nana walked him through the streets, waving to the people who saw her. “All week, actually. Today’s just the start.”

The two passed a chocolate stand. Popo’s eyes lingered on it; they rarely had chocolate back home and the stand was just too tempting.

He must have been standing there for too long, because a wad of cash was shoved into his hands.

“Take it,” Nana smiled. “Feel free to spend it on anything you want.”

“Are you sure?” Popo felt bad for using her money. However, Nana just laughed.

“Of course! Don’t worry about it.”

Roy, dressed in casual clothing, suddenly came up to the two, and whispered something into Nana’s ear. She nodded, and he pulled away. Nana turned back to Popo.

“I’ve gotta go for the morning, I’m supposed to be making speeches and stuff with the council,” She placed a hand on Roy’s shoulder. “Roy will look after you until I’m done.”

“Oh,” Popo just nodded. It sucked that she had to go, but at the same time, at least she had left him with someone he had spoken to before. “That’s fine.”

“You two take care!” Nana walked off, waving to them before heading to the square. Popo watched her until she disappeared out of sight, behind a wall of people.

Next to him, Roy grinned. “So, what should we start with?”

\---  
_Popo was panicking. He had no idea what the voice meant at all. It was, in all honesty, terrifying. But he had to say something, before the voice decided that he was too suspicious to keep alive._

_“Nothing! I don’t want anything!” Popo squirmed in the ice, trying to move away from the ice spike. “I just wanted to see if it was true!”_

_The spike lowered. “If what was true?”_

_“The Ice Queen legend!”_

_The person went quiet. The lights turned on off of a sudden, blinding Popo for a moment. When he opened his eyes again, he found out who he had been talking to._

_The Ice Queen._

_She didn’t look like anything that Popo expected. He was expecting a much older woman, wise beyond her years, and with a stone-cold expression plastered on her face. But the girl in front of him was nothing like that; she was at max a year older than he was, with soft features and no attitude of snobiness or harshness. She was, however, elegantly dressed in a pink & purple dress and blue cape, and a ice-themed tiara sat upon her brown hair._

_Popo was so focused on her that he didn’t realise he was unfrozen until he hit the ground._  
\---

To Popo’s great relief, Roy wasn’t bad company. Now that he was out in public, he had loosened up his act- Roy was actually quite a cheery and funny guy when he wasn’t stressing himself out in the castle. The two boys had spent the first part of the morning shopping around, until Nana’s opening speech had caused most of the public to head over to the second square, where most of the announcements were made.

Instead of heading over, Popo and Roy had gone towards the main square. Popo couldn’t believe how big the village was; his own village was barely big enough to hold one square, let alone two. He was glad that it was so big though- he had a plan to surprise Nana, as a thank-you for her kindness, and he needed her out of sight so she couldn’t see it.

The boys had grabbed chalk from the art stall in the square and had set to work. Roy was making small drawings on the square’s flat ground, whilst Popo was in the middle of making a larger work. His hands were freezing and coated in chalk already, & he resisted the urge to wipe them on his parka.

It was a drawing of Nana, casting some of her ice magic. As much as he liked the castle, he had missed the sensation of drawing, and the festival had provided the perfect time for him to draw.

Roy looked over his shoulder at Popo’s work. “Wow. That’s amazing!”

“Thanks Roy,” Popo grinned, drawing out some of the details. “How are yours going?”

“Bad. I’m not exactly the best artist,” He chuckled, before quickly falling sullen.

“Popo, can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.” Popo pulled back to look at Roy.

“What did you show up for?”

Popo frowned. “What?”

“Nobody has ever visited any Ice Queen peacefully. Not in hundreds of years. Except for you,” Roy’s playful tone had turned serious. “What’s your real reason for being here?”

Popo frowned. “I already told you. I wanted to see if the legends were true.”

“Then why, of all things, did you bring a _mallet_ with you?”

Popo resisted the urge to laugh at Roy’s ridiculousness. “Dude, I’m an ice climber. We use them to break through the ice. I wouldn’t have been able to get up here without it.”

He turned back to his drawing. “Besides, even if I was to come up here to… kill her, I would have attempted by now. All you guys did was take my mallet. You didn’t keep me away from anything else.”

Roy gasped. “Oh my god, we didn’t.”

Popo shrugged. “You can lock them up now though.”

“There’s no point. I mean, you would have gone after her by now, right?”

Popo didn’t like thinking about stuff like that, but he nodded slightly. The two sat in silence, with Popo drawing and Roy sketching on the ground.

“She’ll be back in about half an hour.” Roy eventually broke the silence. Popo nodded.

He hoped that this would at least impress her somewhat.

\---  
_Much to his amusement, the Ice Queen had apologised profusely for unfreezing him without warning._

_She was nice enough on the surface. She apologised for her act of barbarency, and even expressed a sense of awe and childlike glee when Popo revealed he was an ice climber. It was endearing to see someone who had been spoken of with harsh words become excited over something as small as someone’s occupation._

_Suddenly, the Ice Queen gasped. “You must’ve taken all week to get up here then! You can rest here for as long as you like, my staff will take care of you!”_

_“Staff?” Popo hadn’t seen anyone aside from the Ice Queen since he awoke._

_“What, did you think I was alone up here?” The Ice Queen smiled before rushing to some nearby doors and opening them. To Popo’s complete shock, at least 50 maids and butlers stood before him, all ready to comply with what the Queen wanted. She spoke to them before a moment before moving apart. Popo saw two of them taking his frozen mallet away; he went to go after them before feeling a cold hand on his shoulder._

_“Don’t worry,” Despite her friendliness from earlier, the Queen’s voice was laced with a coldness. “They’ll keep it safe until you go home.”_

_Popo shivered at that. Not just at her voice, but because he knew what she thought he was going to do if he kept it._

_The Queen smiled, and let him go. “My maids will guide you to your room! I’ll meet you in the dining room when you’re finished unpacking!”_

_As soon as she was finished speaking, Popo was approached by two maids, clad in blue uniforms, who proceeded to guide him to the exit. He turned back around to see the Queen wave at him, smiling widely._

_He turned back around. The next week was going to be interesting indeed._  
\---

“All done!”

Roy looked over Popo’s shoulder, and whistled. “_Woah._ How’d you do that?”

“Practise and a lot of luck.” Popo was proud of the end product. It was smudged in some places, and he had accidently used the wrong colour for a part of Nana’s dress, but he was still pretty proud of his work.

Popo could hear people coming down into the square; the speeches were finally over. People passed Popo’s art in complete awe; adults pointed it out to their companions, and children were dragging their parents to come and see it. It made Popo feel embarrassed yet proud, knowing that everyone was appreciating his work as much as he did.

Nana took awhile to come down; Popo assumed that she had been caught up in royal affairs. Eventually he saw her coming down the street, followed by two guards watching from behind her. He got an uneasy feeling that they were meant for him.

Despite that, he smiled and walked over to her. “How was it?”

“Boring,” Nana made a face. “It’s the same speech every year, about how wonderful winter is and blah-blah-blah. The council’s ones were worse though.”

Popo grinned. “I have something to show you.”

“What is it?” Nana looked curious. He dragged her over to where he had been sitting for the morning, ready to show her his art piece.

She didn’t say anything at first. She just stared at it, absorbed in what she was looking at. Popo was beginning to worry that she didn’t like it at all.

Then her face broke out into a wide smile.

“_It’s beautiful._”

She pulled Popo into a tight hug. He stood there, shocked for a moment, before returning the hug. He could feel her hands freezing on his back, but he refused to move. She whispered in his ear, so quietly that he could barely hear her.

“Thank you, Popo.”

He smiled, holding her tighter and ignoring everyone else around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cub stop using Roy in every fic challenge
> 
> As friendly as she is to him, Nana still doesn't really trust him,,,, in her defense I wouldn't trust anyone either if every visitor that comes wants to murder your entire family
> 
> Also yea I finally gave the village a name. I got sick of saying 'the village' every 5 lines


	26. Cave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4 more fics hell yea baby
> 
> Also this is now over 250+ views?????? Thank yall sm ily

“How much longer?”

“A few more steps.”

Nana cursed under her breath, following Popo’s movements. The two had been climbing for some time now, and she was getting frustrated with the lack of breaks. She was tired, annoyed and desperately wanted to rest for the coming night. But still, she kept climbing, knowing that there would be a break soon.

The sky was a dull orange. Night was creeping up close, and the two climbers needed a place to rest for the night. During the few times they did stop, they had found no shelter- not even a tiny cave for them to sit in. Nana was sure that they would find one soon, but as the afternoon went on, she began to have her doubts.

They were just approaching their final stop for the night. Nana was hoping that there would at least be something up there; she and Popo hadn’t packed anything else to shelter them, as they needed the extra room in their bags. Popo was peeking over the top & looking at their stop, having reached it before her.

To her great relief, he seemed satisfied. She reached the top as well, climbing over and standing on the cliff. In front of them was a cave- it looked deep for a cave so far up the mountain. But Nana wasn’t a chooser; she was satisfied that they at least had _something_ to rest in.

“We might as well unpack.” Popo trudged through the snow over to the cave. Nana followed behind him, taking in the scenery.

The cave wasn’t like the ones on the mountains back home; it was wet, covered in moss and dirt & strangely smelled of salt. The green moss on the walls were iced with small snowflakes, and the floor, despite being coated in a layer of dirt, was freezing cold. Nana thought it was a strange interior for a cave on these mountains to have, but her curiosity took over her logical thinking.

Popo, however, seemed more suspicious. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.” He was laying out their sleeping bags, observing the cave with a suspicious eye.

“It’s so _cool,_” Nana dropped her bag on the ground, looking around. “How’d this all manage to grow up here?”

“Probably a special kind of moss,” Popo began digging around in the bags again, pulling out a lamp. “The mountains in Kuru get them too, but not this much.”

Nana touched the moss, but pulled back when she felt its moisture. “Still pretty cool, huh?”

“I guess.” Popo lit the lamp, lighting up the cave. To their surprise, the cave stretched out further than they expected. Next to them, it seemed to extend out and down the mountain.

Despite her tiredness, Nana could feel herself getting excited. It was even bigger than it looked, and it had already looked big from the start. She wanted to explore and see what else laid down there. Popo could already sense what she was thinking.

“We’re not going down there.”

“What?!” Nana turned to her friend. “Why not?”

“We don’t know what lives up here,” Popo sat down on his sleeping bag and crossed his arms. “For all we know, a condor could be down there, probably ready to peck out our eyes if we even took a step in its direction.”

Nana rolled her eyes. “And when has that ever happened?”

“Korudo village. Two years ago.”

Nana remembered now. She had almost lost an eye to that condor. She shrugged.

“So? I didn’t lose an eye, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but you almost did,” Popo frowned. “I don’t want that happening again. Besides, I’m tired from climbing all day.”

As much as she wanted to, there was no use arguing against someone as stubborn as Popo. She groaned.

“_Fine._ We can sit up here and die of boredom until dawn.”

“Exactly my plan, Nana.”

\---

Nana waited until Popo was asleep to set off.

She knew it was irresponsible. Deep down, she felt bad for leaving Popo alone out there, especially considering that there could be dangerous animals lurking about on the mountains. But her longing curiosity to explore what was down there was too much to ignore. She wanted to know what lurked down there, even if Popo wasn’t keen on it.

So, she had sealed up the opening to the cave as much as she could, placing small boulders against one another before taking their lamp and heading off.

The cave headed steeply downwards, and Nana struggled not to fall or run down it. It got colder the more she walked, and she could feel her teeth chattering as she continued on. The walls became mossier as she continued, and the dirt on the floor turned into heavy mud.

The walls that the moss had yet to touch were etched with scratch marks. They weren’t the markings of a condor or polar bear, much to Nana’s relief, but they still made her uneasy. They were smaller than the two animals, and lower to the ground. She wondered what sort of animal could be resting up in a place like this.

She knelt down to take a better look. They were older marks; no animal had been up here for some time. That made her feel slightly better.

Holding the lantern out in front of her, she could see that she was nearing the end of the cave. She continued walking, being careful not to fall over.

_“What the hell are you doing?!”_

Nana screamed, swinging her lantern around and hitting someone square in the face. She quickly realised who it was.

“Oh my god, Popo, I’m so sorry!”

She pulled a very pissed-off Popo from the ground. He pulled back from her, scowling and rubbing at his cheek.

“Nana, what the _hell_ do you think you’re doing!?” He repeated his question, looking absolutely furious. Nana looked away, feeling very embarrassed and guilty.

“I was just exploring down here. I thought you’d be asleep.”

“I woke up to a sealed cave, no lantern and you missing. I had to get down here in the _dark_, Nana. For all I knew you could have been dead.”

Nana looked down at the ground. She sighed. “I’m sorry. It was stupid of me to come down here. Especially without telling you.”

Popo sighed. “It’s fine. Whatever. We’ll just head back now and call it a night.”

“The end is only there though,” Nana pointed to the tiny entrance. “I won’t be long, I swear.”

Nana knew she was walking on shaky ground. Luck was on her side however, as Popo simply groaned.

“Fine. 5 minutes max. I just want to go back to bed already.”

“Thank you so much!” She pulled Popo into a hug before dragging him to the entrance. He stood outside and held the lantern as Nana squeezed herself into the narrow entrance; the lantern managed to light up the majority of the cave’s room from the small opening.

It was beautiful. Unlike the dingy walkway, the small room was dry, and covered in an array of crystals. They grew everywhere- on the walls, the ceiling, even from some parts of the floor. Parts that had broken off scattered the floor, in sizes ranging from ridiculously large to almost being invisible to Nana’s eye.

Nana knew she couldn’t stay for long though. Her eyes glanced at a broken crystal on the ground; it was small enough to fit in her pocket. She picked it up to get a better look. It was blueish in colour, and felt cool under her touch. She pocketed it, and snuck back out of the room before Popo could yell at her.

“Finally,” He sounded grumpy and tired; Nana could see now that he had probably fallen over trying to reach her, noticing a graze on his forehead. “Can we go back now?”

“Of course,” Before they set back off, Nana pulled out the crystal from her pocket, and handed it to her friend. “This is for you by the way.”

Popo’s eyes went from tired to curious. “Was this from the cave?”

“Yeah,” Nana grinned. “I felt bad about making you chase after me, so I got that for you.”

Popo smiled. “Thanks Nana. Can we head back now?”

“Whatever.” She grinned, nudging Popo’s shoulder and managing to get a small laugh out of him.

They slept soundly that night, knowing that they were beside each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kuru & Korudo are two other villages; they probably won't feature in any of the remaining fics


	27. Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AKA the reason why popo stopped ice skating for like 10 years
> 
> This was kinda rushed out but I did my best hhh
> 
> Theyre probably around like,,,, 8 or 9 here

_They set out towards the lake, giggling and racing to see who could get there first. Their skates clinked together over their shoulders, hitting their backs as they ran. Their parents called out after them, telling them that they’d be there soon, but they were already too far ahead to hear them._

_Popo was lingering behind Nana. Today the lake had frozen over, and so the two had set off to go skate on it. He was excited; he had only skated a few times in his life, and even though he had loved it, he never really got the chance to go out._

_Nana was probably even more excited than he was. She was racing ahead, eyes bound on the frozen lake, forgetting that Popo was even following her. He had seen her skating out there in the past; she was amazing, able to do jumps and hops on the ice with no problems. He was hoping that she would show them off today, or even teach him a jump or two._

_Nana skidded to a stop ahead, allowing Popo to catch up. He stood next to her, observing the lake. To their relief, it seemed stable enough to hold their weight, surprising since it had only recently frozen over._

_Nana plopped herself onto the snow, undoing her boots to put on her skates. Popo followed her actions, putting on his own skates. Unlike Popo’s old, plain grey ones, Nana’s skates looked brand new, and were decorated with blue patterns. He was admittedly jealous of her skates; Popo rarely got anything new like that from his parents, unless it was something they made themselves._

_Nana caught him staring. He turned back to his own skates, finishing up the laces. He was just about to get up when he heard Nana's voice above him._

_“Ready to go?”_

_Popo shakily stood up on his skates. “Yep.”_

_The two kids slowly made their way to the edge of the lake. Nana, with all her luck, managed to get up straight away, standing on the ice with no problem. Popo, meanwhile, found himself struggling to even get his body off the ice; every time he tried to stand up, he would just fall back down. After a few tries, Nana skated over to him, hands on her hips and smirking at him smugly._

_“Need a bit of help there?”_

_"No." Popo stuck his tongue out at her and tried to get up again. He managed to balance himself for a moment before falling back down, hitting his tailbone. He groaned._

_"...Maybe I need a bit of help."_

_Popo held out his hands, and she grabbed them, forcefully pulling him up from the ground. He stumbled from the sudden force, almost falling over again before steadying himself. Now that he was up from the ground, Popo could finally get back into skating. He slowly took off after Nana, attempting to get used to skating again. Nana, meanwhile, skated around him, showing off her jumps and tricks on the ice._

_Slowly, Popo managed to remember how to skate properly again, and he was soon chasing after Nana on the ice. They played a game of cat-and-mouse for a bit, with Nana running (or, more accurately, skating) away from Popo as he attempted to catch up with her. Soon enough, Popo had gotten used to the ice once more, and managed to catch up to his best friend, almost tackling her to the ice._

_They skidded to a stop, stopping themselves from toppling over one another, before bursting out into childish laughter. He was surprised that he had caught up to her so quickly- last time it had taken ages for him to reach her on the ice. Thinking about Nana reminded him of something he wanted to ask; he stopped laughing, and turned to her with a sheepish look on his face._

_“Nana, can I ask you something?”_

_“Mmm?” Nana stopped laughing as well, looking confused._

_Popo glanced down at the ice, feeling embarrassed for what he was about to ask. “Um… can you show me how you do your jumps and stuff? Like, on the ice? I wanna learn how to do them too. They just look really cool.”_

_Nana’s face went from confused to gleeful. “Of course! Why didn’t you ask sooner?”_

_Popo shrugged in response, but he smiled. Nana immediately dragged him to the center of the lake, ready to show him all of her moves._

_\---_

_He wished he never asked for her to show him._

_It was close to lunchtime, and Nana had been showing her moves for a good two hours now. He had long since given up trying to replicate them; the ice wasn’t feeling too strong under him, and he was finding it too difficult to attempt jumping anyways. At first, he was satisfied just watching Nana show off her moves; she knew a lot more than what Popo had initially thought._

_Now though, his stomach was rumbling. Their parents were due to be here any time now, with lunch for all of them. He needed a break anyways- his legs were tired from all the skating, and he was getting cold sitting on the ice and watching Nana._

_And Nana would not stop showing off her moves._

_It was getting annoying now, and Popo wished that she would just hurry up and stop so they could get off the ice and rest; he didn't want to leave her out here all alone. But she was full of too much energy to stop. Popo had resorted to lying down on the ice and watching the clouds in the sky, ignoring Nana’s skating._

_That was until he heard the sound of splashing. When he looked up, Nana was gone._

_And there was a hole in the ice._

_Popo screamed, and immediately raced over to her, slipping unsteadily all over the ice. He could see Nana under the ice, struggling to swim back up to the top. He reached down to her, forcing his hands into the ice-cold water in order to pull her to the surface._

_To his great relief, he was just strong enough to pull her up from the water. He pulled her onto the ice next to the hole, and took a look at her. She looked absolutely awful- she was dripping wet, turning pale and was shivering like nothing else. She wasn’t responding to Popo either; he called out to her, but she just stood there, shivering and turning paler by the minute._

_He didn’t know what to do. More accurately, he knew what to do, but his mind went blank seeing Nana sitting there, literally shivering to death. All he could do was hold her close, in a weak attempt to keep her warm until their parents showed up. He started bawling out tears, calling for his parents to come and find them._

_As if fate was listening to him, they showed up a few moments later, and reacted exactly as Popo thought. They screamed as well, with his father rushing out onto the ice to reach the two children. Remembering how the ice had cracked under Nana, Popo began to wail harder, scared that it would collapse under him and cause him to fall under the water._

_That didn’t happen._

_His father had to pry Nana from Popo’s grip, before attempting to get him to stand up alongside them. Popo couldn’t; he was too scared to even stand on the fragile ice. His father had no choice but to take the hypothermic Nana back to the edge without him, and send Popo’s mother out to get him. The entire time, he wouldn’t stop crying out of fear, for both his best friend and fearing that he too would fall through the ice._

_When his mother took him back to the edge of the lake, Nana was gone. Through his crying, Popo could overhear his parents talking about it- she’d been taken back home by her mother, to warm herself up before it got worse. They assured him that she was fine, she’d get better in no time, and then they’d be able to go back out skating again._

_Popo didn’t want to touch another ice skate for as long as he lived._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of based off my brother; he got second-hand fear of wasps bc of how terrified I was when I got stung by one as a kid.
> 
> Also its pretty ironic that for someone who climbs ice all the time, Popo's afraid of a frozen lake. Then again ig mountains and shit are pretty solid throughout


	28. Theme Park

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I promise this is the last one from someone else's POV that isnt Nana or Popo  
This is more just filler until I get to the last fic; that's the one I'm most excited for
> 
> Fun fact- the original prompt was NES Gang, aka every character that debuted under the NES console. So every character in the fic comes from the NES

It had been Zelda's idea to go. It was one of those days where only half the fighters were in actual battles, leaving the rest to wander around and find something to do until the next day. Many of the fighters were bored out of their minds, as several days had passed without a single battle for some of them.

Link had discovered that a theme park had opened nearby, in-between the last tournament and the current one, and Zelda had insisted that the non-battling fighters should visit. Whilst some of the free fighters, especially Peach and Luigi, had been suspicious and nervous about going, it took no convincing to get others on board. The majority of them had never seen such a thing; it was a new experience for them, and they wanted to see it for themselves.

Convincing Master Hand to allow them to go (with a bit of bribery, of course), they managed to catch one of the local buses and headed over to the park.

On the way, they all agreed on partnering up- they were to stay in groups of 3 or 4 so they could travel around the park together without getting lost. Zelda & Link, being excited for the park and not wanting to get held back, quickly teamed up with the Ice Climbers. Link didn’t know them too well - in fact, he rarely spoke to them outside of a few small conversations after battles - but Zelda had become good friends with Nana, and had insisted that they should group together. Link, not wanting to argue, simply went along with it.

By the time they reached the park, the entire group had gotten restless. The two climbers were already bouncing off the walls with energy, Mega Man was dragging Samus to the entrance, impatient with waiting for everyone else, and Bowser, growing agitated, had pushed ahead and was terrorising the crowd with the Koopalings following on his tail. Even the usually graceful and patient Zelda was growing excited, her feet tapping against the ground in impatience and excitement.

“How much longer?” Popo frowned. “I’m getting sunburnt already.”

“Not much,” Despite the sun shining over them & everyone else around him being obnoxiously loud, Link remained stoic and calm. “Probably only a few more minutes.”

“Why can’t Bowser or Peach just tell them to let us in?” Nana was pulling at her shirt; the heat had stopped the climbers from wearing their parkas, but they were still needlessly hot. “Aren’t they royalty?”

“Well, yes, but technically they can’t use that kind of power here. Only in their home universe. It's why Marth and I haven't even bothered to try,” Zelda pointed out Bowser, who was arguing with the poor ticket lady. “Of course, Bowser could just intimidate her enough to let us in, which is exactly what he’s doing.”

Link frowned. “He really shouldn’t be. He could get us all banned.”

“Well who’s gonna stop him? Security?” Nana chuckled, before suddenly stopping when she noticed something ahead. Zelda turned to look and saw Bowser being escorted away, with the Koopalings following behind their father.

“Exactly.” Zelda giggled, watching as Peach went up and respectfully paid for everyone’s tickets.

Finally, they’d get to experience the park for themselves.

\---

Zelda was in love. The park was absolutely beautiful; its theming and decorating were perfect, and she and Link found themselves immersed in each area’s setting. The park’s rides were just as astounding, and Zelda kept finding herself going on the same ones over and over again. Sure, the majority were absolutely terrifying for her, but she still enjoyed going on them, especially with Nana.

Nana, as Zelda learnt, was an adrenaline junkie. Unlike Link, who got impatient of waiting after a few rides, or Popo, who’s motion sickness made him unable to ride anything for more than 10 minutes, Nana ran off of her own fear and selective patience, and was constantly dragging the other 3 to taller and more frightening rides. Zelda was shocked by just how long Nana could withstand the rides for; even Link had to take breaks after every few rides to catch her breath.

At the moment, the four were sitting down for the first break of the day, enjoying lunch. Peach had insisted that all of them take their own lunch, and Zelda could see why. The food was awfully expensive, and whilst she could definitely afford it, she still thought it was just too much to ask. So the four were sitting at a table with pre-made sandwiches, eating as fast as they could so they could head back to rides.

Except for Nana.

She was just picking at her food, not speaking & looking very uninterested and pale. She had been acting like this since they sat down. Zelda had just assumed that she was upset that they had to stop, but after seeing how pale she looked, she was beginning to have second thoughts.

“Nana?”

“Mmm?” She looked up. “What is it?”

Before Zelda could say anything, Popo spoke straight away.

“You look really pale.”

“Oh,” She waved it off. “It’s nothing, really. Just getting a bit tired.”

“Nana, you look like you’re about to pass out,” Link spoke up. “You're wearing yourself out from the rides. You need to get some energy back into you before we go back.”

“But how?” Zelda turned to Link.

“Sport drinks. I overheard Ryu talking about them a few days ago, & I saw that they sold them here. He said they help if you have low energy.”

Before either of them could turn back around, Popo had run off towards the food order station, a wad of money in his hand. He was borderline pushing against the other guests, trying to get the drink for Nana.

Zelda found it endearing how much the two cared for each other. In all her years of life, she had never seen such a bond between two people- not even between herself and Link. It didn’t even stop at just helping each other like this. Zelda could remember countless times where Nana sacrificed herself for their win, or when Popo would come dangerously close to losing just to rescue her.

In a way, the amount that they cared for each other actually scared her.

Popo came back with a massive cup of drink, just as Zelda was finishing up her own lunch. Nana took it, immediately chugging it down. Now that Nana was getting energy back into her, they could finally head off shortly. Zelda tried not to be impatient, but she could feel herself wanting to go back on all the rides again- they hadn’t gone on all of them yet, and they only had a short while before Peach wanted everyone to meet up again.

Luckily Nana was quick to bounce back. By the time she was finished, the colour had come back in her cheeks, and she looked a lot better.

"Right," Nana slammed down the empty cup on the table, wiping her mouth. "Where to next?"

"We have about two hours left," Link was looking at the map. "And 3 more lands. There's one right next to us with a few rides."

"And there wasn't a big line when we passed it," Popo said. "Everyone's probably having lunch now anyways."

"Then let's go!" Nana pulled Popo up from his seat, and Link & Zelda stood up to follow her. Zelda was shocked by how quickly Nana had gotten better; it was as if nothing had happened at all.

Zelda couldn't linger on it for long though. Her friends were already running towards a towering ride, and she had to catch up to them.

\---

By the time everyone met up to go home, Zelda was ready to collapse from all the walking and rides Nana had dragged her onto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was based on an incident that happened when I was visiting America; I went on so many rides at Six Flags in 38 Celsius/100 F heat (after spending months in very cold weather) with NO water that I almost passed out.


	29. Rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more and then we're done!!!
> 
> Once again this is filler; its also a bit short bc I didn't have much time to write today

Nana was bored.

It had been raining for a week straight and she was bored out of her mind. It was far too wet and cold to go outside- aside from battles, which still went on despite the rain. She had done absolutely everything to try and pass the time- reading, baking, training, attempting to paint with Popo, but nothing was working. She was going stir-crazy being cooped up inside.

It was so bad that she had begged Popo for the two to get extra battles, just so that she could do something. He had refused, mostly because Master Hand would also refuse, meaning that Nana had to suffer from her boredom whenever a match wasn’t on. At least it wasn’t just her feeling the stir-crazy going on. Shulk was absolutely irritable from not being outside & most of the Pokemon were being destructive from a lack of space.

Right now, she was sitting at her bedroom window, watching the raindrops fall down her window. It had slowed over the past couple of days, but it was still raining enough that most didn’t want to go outside. Popo was one of those people- he was in the training room right now, practising with Marth. He didn't want either of them going out; he was worried that they would get sick if they even took a step outside.

But there were still a few people outside. The water Pokemon were sitting in the grass, soaking in the rain, and Nana could see Isabelle and Villager walking around, chatting under leaf umbrellas. She could even see the Pokemon trainers were enjoying themselves, bundled in yellow raincoats. and umbrellas, chatting as they watched over the Pokemon.

Seeing people outside made Nana want to go out as well. She knew that the smart thing was to stay inside. But she was sick and tired of sitting around and doing nothing.

Nana quickly gave into her wishes. Standing up, she opened her closet and dug around until she pulled out a raincoat and rain boots; Peach had gifted them to her at the last tournament, and they luckily still fit her. Throwing them over the top of her parka, she rushed out of her room, dodging past the other fighters in an attempt to get to the door.

“Nana! Where are you going?!”

Nana skidded to a stop, and turned to look at Corrin. “Outside. Why?”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit too wet to go out?”

“No.”

“Fair enough.” The royal simply shrugged at that. Nana snorted. She always thought that Corrin was a bit weird, not even counting his whole ‘turning-into-a-dragon’ ability. He was so... politely blunt about everything.

“Is there a problem with that?”

“No, not at all! I just found it weird that you’re going out without, uh….” Corrin frowned, struggling to remember. “You know…”

“Popo.”

“Yes, him!” Despite the fact that Corrin was very intelligent in sword-wielding and battle techniques, being known all around for being quite a strong fighter, he was also incredibly forgetful, especially with names. “Where is he, anyways?”

“Probably training with Marth,” Nana shifted on the spot, eager to hurry up and go outside. “But don’t tell him I’m outside. He’ll kill me.”

“I swear on my life.” He placed his hand over his heart, nodding.

“Thanks, dude.” Nana grinned and set back off towards the entrance, itching to finally get outside again.

\---

The rain had definitely done its damage. The mansion’s grounds were muddy and wet; Nana could spot mud prints from where a fighter had walked from the grass back onto the path. Puddles of water were everywhere on the path as well. The rain was still falling pretty strongly, and the sky was a dark grey- it was as if night had already fallen.

Nana loved it.

It wasn’t as cold as she expected outside; sure, it wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t bitter cold either. The air smelled of fresh rain, and Nana felt refreshed just from standing outside. Giggling to herself, she jumped off the steps into a small puddle, proceeding to splash her legs. Even the water wasn’t as cold as she thought.

She held out her hands, letting the rain fall on them. It had been so long since she had seen rain. Her village rarely got rain (they got snowfall instead) and when they did get it, it turned the entire village into slush. It was a relief to enjoy the rain without thinking of all the disgusting sludge-snow that she would have to clean up.

“_Nana!_”

Shaken out of her thoughts, Nana turned around to see Popo standing outside the door, under the roof. He looked both confused. “What are you doing?!”

“Sitting in the rain,” She grinned cheekily at him, before frowning. “How’d you know I was out here?”

“Just a guess. And Corrin told me.”

_Damnit Corrin._ Nana kicked at one of the puddles. “Are you just gonna stand there, or are you gonna join me?”

Popo stood still for a moment, contemplating whether to give into Nana. Nana watched as he shut the door, going back inside. She was about to go inside and chase after him when he opened the door back up, clad in a blue raincoat and blue rain boots. Nana grinned; she knew that as much as he said he didn’t want to, he really did want to mess around in the rain.

“If I get sick from this, you’re so dead.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Nana grinned, dragging him out into the rain. "You'll be fine."

She didn’t just drag him out into the rain. She then proceeded to practically throw him, causing him to slip and fall onto the muddy ground. Nana laughed at her achievement, only to instantly be pulled down alongside Popo, hitting the mud face-first. She could hear Popo laughing at her as she got up, wiping the mud from her face.

Grinning mischievously, Nana pushed Popo back down, wiping the mud from her hands onto him. It wasn’t long before the two of them were drenched and covered in mud, laughing hysterically at each other. Nana was beginning to get cold after a while, but she didn’t care; she was having too much fun out in the rain.

Eventually Peach had to drag the two inside, scolding them for their immature behaviour. Not like either of the two cared anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I debated making Corrin a boy or a girl since I made them a girl in the Biker/Florist one; I ended up going male for this one


	30. Birthday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally done! And right before my most-important exam! Huzzah!!

It was absolute chaos for Popo.

It was Nana’s birthday, and Popo had been rushing around the mansion all day, trying desperately to get everything done. Usually he wouldn’t put this much effort into her birthday- Nana was perfectly satisfied with a small present and nothing more. But this year, Popo wanted to do something bigger for her.

Peach had agreed to distract Nana for the day whilst Popo got everything ready. He had set up her presents in their room - one from him, a couple from some of the other fighters & birthday cards from pretty much everyone - and had decorated their room with balloons he had gotten earlier. Now all that was left for him to do was make her a cake.

How nobody had talked him out of that idea he didn’t know, but it was too late to back out. With the best bakers out of the fighters (Nana, Peach and, to Popo’s surprise, Link) either in battles or out of the mansion, Popo was left to try and figure out how to bake the cake himself. He had managed to find a cake mix with simple instructions on the back, and had just chosen to use that. Popo assumed that he could at least make something as simple as a plain cake.

It wasn’t.

Somehow, Popo had managed to screw up not one, not two, but _three_ attempts at making this cake. Every time he would add too much of one thing, or not enough of another, or he’d forget an ingredient until it was already halfway baked. He was getting very frustrated, especially since there was only one cake mix left in the cupboard. He only had one more shot to get this right.

He was being careful now with his final attempt. He had made sure not to forget anything, and had been extra careful with how much of each ingredient he put in. He didn’t want to end up having to go out and buy a premade one; he felt that it was less sincere than just making one himself.

Besides, Nana was due back in a few hours. He wouldn’t have enough time to finish baking if he messed it up one more time.

It was looking good now though. It seemed to be the texture that the recipe described, and it didn’t seem to runny or dry like the last attempts. Popo was finally beginning to have hope that his plan would finally go well.

He poured the mixture into the baking pan, and waited for the mixture to settle. Before he could stick in the oven however, he heard someone walk into the kitchen.

“Poyo!”

Popo looked down at the ground and smiled. “Kirby? What are you doing here? Don’t you have a match on soon?”

The pink puffball didn’t respond. He waddled over to the fridge, and jumped up to open it. Popo didn’t even question what Kirby was getting, because he already knew- a moment later, Kirby jumped down, a slice of strawberry shortcake in hand. Popo turned back to the cake, ready to put it in the oven.

Kirby didn’t leave though- he walked over to Popo, eager to see what he was doing. He jumped up onto the counter, startling Popo and almost making him drop the pan.

“Jesus, Kirby, don’t do that!” Popo clutched the pan as if it was his life force.

“Poyo?” Kirby inquired, looking at the pan. Even though he still couldn’t understand Kirby, Popo guessed what he was asking.

“It’s a cake for Nana,” Popo opened the oven, shoving the cake inside. “For her birthday.”

Kirby let out another sound, pulling something out from behind him. It was a handmade card for Nana; Popo must have missed getting his earlier. Popo smiled, taking it.

“Thanks Kirby. I’ll give it to her when she comes back.”

“Poyo!” Kirby waved goodbye before jumping down and walking out with his cake.

Popo turned back to his own cake. All he had to do now was wait.

\---

He didn’t forget it.

He didn’t even burn it.

He _boiled_ it.

Popo had absolutely _no idea_ how he did it. He had left it to bake in the oven, and when he came back to check on it, the cake mixture was boiling and bubbling in the oven. Panicking, he had pulled it out to see if his eyes had deceived him, and they hadn’t; the cake was actually boiling before his eyes.

He was devastated. His once chance to finally do something nice for Nana was gone. He wouldn’t have time to try again, or even go out and buy a premade one. Nana was due back any minute now, and unless he managed to run all the way to the bakery & back whilst missing the afternoon rush, he was doomed.

Popo set the boiling cake on the cooling rack, still inside its pan, and sat down on the cold tiles. He was absolutely defeated. It took all his will not to just cry right then and there. All he could do was wait until Nana came back.

Which she did, a few minutes later.

“What the _hell_ happened in here?!”

He guessed she had either seen the still-messy counter, the first three failed cakes in the bin, the boiled cake on the rack, or all of the above.

“Popo?” Nana finally noticed him sitting down on the ground. “What’s going on?”

“Take a wild guess.”

Nana looked around. “You tried baking in here, didn’t you?”

He nodded. Nana sighed.

“Popo, _why_? If you needed help, Peach and I would’ve helped when we got ba-”

“I was making it for you.”

Nana went silent. “What?”

“For your birthday. I wanted to do something special for you,” Popo shook his head, attempting to stop any tears from flowing. “I really did try, I swear. But I just… couldn’t get it right. No matter how many times I tried.”

Popo could feel himself shaking from holding back his tears. He wiped away at his eyes, looking straight at the oven, where his cake had boiled. He heard Nana walk over and sit down next to him on the ground.

“You really did all that for me?” Her voice was hushed and quiet, very different than her usual loudness.

Popo sighed. “I tried.”

Nana smiled softly. She pulled him into a bone-crushing hug, almost winding him in the process.

“Thank you for trying.”

He smiled, leaning into the hug. Nana pulled away quickly though, looking confused.

“But seriously, how the hell did you make such a mess?”

“I messed it up three times. Then I boiled the cake.” He pointed to the cooling rack.

“B..._Boiled the cake?!_”

"Don't ask."

Popo stood up, pulling up Nana with him. “I did more stuff for you though. This was just the last thing I wanted to do.”

“Was that why Peach took me out all day?”

“Yea,” Popo grinned sheepishly. “I needed to get everything done before you saw it.”

She laughed. “And I thought were a sap as it is.”

"Whatever."

The two grinned and ran towards their room, where a variety of presents waited for Nana. Popo was already forgetting about the disaster that was the cake- seeing Nana getting excited for what was waiting for her was enough to clear his mind.

His plan had worked after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what else Kirby can say so he's just,,,, poyo  
The whole cake boiling incident is 100% based off a real incident. My friend somehow managed to boil cupcakes in cooking at school a few years back. To this day we still have no idea how he did it.
> 
> On a more serious note, I seriously can't stress this enough, thank you guys for reading this!!! I'm so happy there's people out there who appreciate my obscure fics


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